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SINC-LINK 


.* 


Vol.7  No.  3     May- June 

S INC -LINK  IS  A  PUBLICATION  OF 
THE  TORONTO  TIMEX-SINCLAIR  USERS 
CLUB  AND  IS  ISSUED  6  TIMES  A 
YEAR.  COPIES  OF  THE  NEWSLETTER 
ARE  SI  ,50  EACH  FOR  NON-MEMBERS. 
CLUB  MEMBERS  RECEIVE  FREE  COPIES 
AS  PART  OF  THE  $20.00  ANNUAL 
MEMBERSHIP  FEE.  A  NEWSLETTER 
SUBSCRIPTION  ONLY  IS  AVAILABLE 
FOR  SI 2. 00. 

NEWSLETTERS  ARE  EXCHANGED,  FREE 
OF  CHARGE,  WITH  OTHER 
TIMEX-SINCLAIR  USERS  GROUPS. 

PLEASE  CREDIT  THIS  PUBLICATION 
AND  THE  AUTHOR  IF  YOU  COPY 
MATERIAL. 

THE    CLUB    MEETS     ON     THE  FIRST 
WEDNESDAY     OF     EACH    MONTH  AT 
FOREST        HILLS  COLLEGIATE 
INSTITUTE,  7 JO  EGLINTON  AVE.    W.  , 
TORONTO. 

SEND  CORRESPONDANCE  TO: 

Attention;       SINC-LINK  EDITOR 
TORONTO     TIMEX-SINCLAIR  USERS 
CLUB,         14         RICHOME  COURT, 
SCARBOROUGH,  ONTARIO, 
CANADA  M1K  2Y1 


ZZ3 9/2231 
TS1888/1588 
PC3388  ! 
TS2868  f 
5PECIBIH  c± 


3.1  f 

LABIH  I/T 

H\ 
:;  l 

_H  ~  

TtffiOITO  Tim-SIICUJE 
OKIES  CUB 


SUPER  SPRING  ISSUE 


pg. 

2 

Editorial           /Jwfejf  +0  LP 
Bob » s  Notebook  „sc(LIPr  So^r 

pg. 

3,4 

pg. 

5 

Artist  II  Mod. 

pg. 

6 

QL  Notes 

pg. 

7 

Z88  User  Group 

pg. 

8 

Extra  2068  Ram 

pg. 

9 

Disk  Drive  Notes 

pg. 

10 

QLips 

pg. 

11,12 

2068,ZX81  Programs  j 

pg- 

13,14 

QL  Clock  Program 

pg. 

15 

PCB  Transfer  Film 

pg. 

16 

Larken  Utility  Review 

pg. 

17 

Larken  Software 

pg. 

18 

CATS  Fest  Review 

pg. 

19. 

QL  Sound 

pg. 

20 

Letters 

pg. 

21 

More  of  Bob's  Notebook 

pg. 

22 

Larken  Info 

pg. 

23 

QL  Val 

pg. 

24 

Larken  Hardware 

EXECUTIVE  OFFICERS: 


PRESIDENT 
TREASURER 
SECRETARY 
ACTIVITIES: 
TAPE  LIBRARIAN  ZX81: 
TAPE  LIBRARIAN  2068: 
TAPE  LIBRARIAN  QL: 
PAPER  LIBRARIAN: 
NEWSLETTER: 
LIAISON  OFFICER: 
(  Out-of-town  members  ) 


JEFF  TAYLOR  (  244-8583  ) 
BILL  LAWSON  (  444-8772  ) 
GEORGE  CHAMBERS  (  751-7559  ) 

RENE  BRUNEAU  (  531-9749  ) 

■I  ii  ii 

RENATO  ZANNESE  (  635-6536  ) 

HUGH  HOWIE  (  634-4929  ) 

GREG  ROBINS  (  920-7747  ) 

JEFF  TAYLOR  (  244-8583  ) 

GEORGE  CHAMBERS »   14  RICHOME  COURT, 

SCARBOROUGH .  ONTARIO.  M1K-2Y1 

(  416-751-7559  ) 


TORONTO  TIMEX-SINCLAIR  USERS  CLUB 


14  RICHOME  COURT ,    SCARBOROUGH,    ONTARIO,    CANADA  MIX  2Y1 


Editorial 


News  letter 


I  was  going  to  start  off  by 
apologizing  for  getting  this 
issue  out  a  little  late.  Then  I 
thought,  "Why  am  I  apologizing? 
I  haven't  done  anything  wrong." 
So  here  isn't  an  apology. 

The  reason  this  issue  is  a 
couple  of  weeks  late  is  because 
several  of  the  club  members, 
myself  included,  went  to  the 
Capital  Area  Time*  Sinclair 
(CATS)  Users  Group  Computer  Fest 
in  Washington,  D.C.  Since  the 
fest  occurred  after  the  May  5th 
TTSUC  meeting  and  normal 
Sine-Link  release  date,  the  Exec 
felt  it  better  to  delay  the 
May-June  issue  and  to  include 
members'  comments  about  the  fest 
in  this  issue  rather  than 
reporting  on  it  in  the  July 
-August  issue.  Just  trying  to 
stay  current . 

CATS  Fest 

The  big  news  is  that  six  of 
our  members  made  our  respective 
ways  down  to  Washington  for  an 
enjoyable  if  rushed  May  5th,  6th 
&  7th  weekend.  I  would  have  to 
say  that  the  fest  was  a  success 
for  the  organizers  with  visitors 
and  exhibitors  from  as  far  away, 
as  British  Columbia,  Oregon  and 
Cal if ornia . 

The  fest  was  a  success  for  us 
too.  Each  of  us  spent  more  than 
we  planned  on,  but  not  one  of  us 
regretted  doing  so.  I  am  now  the 
owner  of  a  used  QL,  a  graphics 
tablet  with  software,  a  fabulous 
RGB  monitor,  ZX81  hardware  plus 
assorted  software,  magazines  and 
books.  A  financial  disaster  but 
I'm  still  grinning  so  it  can't 
be  that  bad. 

Sad  to  see  the  departure  of  a 
vendor  such  as  Zebra  Systems, 
thanks  for  years  of  great 
hard-and-sof tware  support. 

On  a  lighter  note,  Hugh  Howie 
is  particularly  happy  about  this 
fest.  He  now  has  four  new  QL 
members ! 

See  George ' s  comments  for  more 
CATS  Fest  info. 

Well  done,  CATS! 


In  case  you  haven't  noticed, 
we  are  presenting  another  large 
issue.  I  am  really  pleased  with 
the  response  from  our  writers. 
In  fact  the  only  reason  why  this 
issue  isn't  larger  is  because 
its  weight  would  cost  us  more  in 
postage  prices.  So  to  those 
writers  whose  articles  don't 
appear  in  this  issue,  don't 
worry,  your  names  will  appear  in 
print  in  the  July-August 
news  letter . 

I'm  also  happy  to  announce 
that  this  edition  was  assembled 
by  Renato  Zannese  and  Greg 
Robins.  This  makes  my  job  of 
producing  the  newsletter  much 
easier.  I  welcome  any  aid  or 
suggestions  which  will  improve 
the  quality  of  our  publication. 
Just  let  us  know  with  a  card  or 
a  letter. 

QLers  Note 

Last  issue  we  ran  a 
questionnaire  asking  QLers  to 
comment.  One  of  the  questions 
may  have  been  misleading.  Allow 
me  to  point  out  that  our  QL 
orogram  library  (as  well  as  the 
ZX81  and  TS2068  library) 
contains  only  public  domain 
programs.  If  Quanta  members  wish 
to  exchange  cartridges  they  do 
so  privately.  The  Toronto 
Timex-Sinclair  Users  Club  will 
not  knowingly  distribute 
copywritten  programs  without 
prior  permission  from  the 
authors . 

Non-Canadian  Readers  Take  Note! 

We  have  been  receiving  a  lot 
of  cheques  written  out  to 
non-Canadian  banks.  These  are 
usually  for  about  $2.00  for 
issues  of  Sine-Link.  Since  our 
bank  charges  us  more  to  process 
the  cheque  than  they  are  worth 
I  would  ask  that  readers  use  a 
POSTAL  MONEY  ORDER  instead  of  a? 
cheque.  Also,  please  do  not  send 
postage  stamps.  We  cannot  use 
foreign  stamps.  Thanks  for  your 
cooperation . 


BOB'S  NOTEBOOK 

At  the  club  see ting  in  April,  I  promised  a  utility 
which  wcuid  allow  the  data  in  my  disk  indexer  (see 
Smc-Link  Nov-Dec  87  p. 6)  to  be  printed  on  the  wide 
printer  with  eight  entries  per  line  in  condensed  font. 
Listings  1  and  2  below  will  da  the  job.  But  here  are 
some  explanatory  notes. 

Listing  1  is  straight-forward  and  should  present  no 
problems. 

Listing  2*.  Variable  <ff>  means  farm  feed  and 
controls  the  ejection  of  the  paper  after  55  lines  are 
printed.  You  may  wish  to  alter  this  paraateter  to  some 
other  number  of  lines.  Variable  <lf>  means  line  feed 
and  is  used  to  insert  a  line  feed  after  eight  records 
are  printed. 

In  line  3001 i  the  address  37825  equals  37799  +  26  so 
as  to  skip  over  the  first  two  dl  items  which  contain 
the  <££ARCH  IS  COMPLETED)  message.  The  address  37799 
is  contingent  upon  your  conpilation  coming  up  with 
37797  as  the  start  of  the  data  area  for  d$  in  the 
compilation.  If  it  is  any  other  valuei  you  will  have 
to  adjust  the  37325  &  5602A-  addresses  accordingly. 

Line  3007  inserts  a  space  after  each  file  name  to 
separate  it  from  the  disk  number;  similarlyi  line  3017 
inserts  two  spaces  between  records.  Line  3010  skips 
over  the  asterisks  in  the  d$  array?  line  3012  stops 
action  and  returns  to  the  leader  at  line  1100  when  it 
encounters  a  space  in  the  second  place  in  the  file 
name. 


In  the  Jan-Feb  1939  issue,  I  provided  a  utility 
uhicn  would  allow  the  sorting  of  lists  (of 
information)  entered  into  the  Tasword.  As  I  explained 
beforei  such  lists  can  be  birthdays  and  anniversaries, 
things  to  do,  disk  names  &  numbers,  anything  you  iike 
as  long  as  the  entries  do  not  exceed  64  characters  in 
■ength. 

In  listing  3  and  4  below,  you  will  find  a  similar 
utility  for  doing  the  same  thing  with  MSCRIPT.  Listing 
3  is  the  loader  and  remains  in  BASIC,  while  listing  4 
is  cast  compiled  using  Timachine.  Here  are  some  notes 
en  these  two  programs. 

If  ycu  don't  have  the  taswide  utility,  you  should 
leave  out  line  98  in  listing  3  and  make  line  240  in 
listing  4  read:  'CLS:  BEEP  oa,  VAL  '10':  FOR  i=n  TO 
s-i:  PRINT  d*(i>:  NEXT  i). 

In  line  510  in  listing  3,  the  PEEKs  get  the  value  of 
variable  <b>  in  the  compiled  cade  <,mssort.Co;  <b>  is 
the  length  of  cade  to  be  saved.  If  you  get  a  different 
location  for  variable  <b)  when  you  do  your 
compilation,  you  should  change  these  PEEK  addresses 
accordingly.  Injine  100,  I  put  the  words  -MSCRIPT 
SORT)  in  inverse  characters  and  followed  these  with  24 
spaces.  I  also  put  the  words  -BLOCK  SAVE)  in  inverse 
cnaracters  in  line  HQ  of  listing  4. 

Lines  Q4  and  530  are  set  up  to  return  action  to  my 
Ramdisk;  you  may  change  these  to  go  back  to  the 
current  menu  in  your  disk  drive  by  changing  <60  TO  4> 
to  the  drive  number  of  your. choice. 


LISTING  1 


CrxAxi-P.t 


1000  CLEAR  29000:  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  LOAD 
'indxLP.Cc'CODE  63CC0 

1010  RANDOMIZE  USR  VAL  *1Q0" :  OPEN  WAL  V/dd* 


1012  PRINT  »VAL  '4":  OPEN  tVAL 


'IP* 


1015  PRINT  ftVAL  '4':  POKE  VAL  ' 16090' i VAL  '135': 
PRINT  ttVAL  *4':  POKE  VAL  '  16094* ,  VAL  '8':  LP  R I  NT 

1017  OUT  127,15  s«&-  cok5o&)Seo   pmut  mods 

1013  GO  SUB  1200 

1O20  RANDOMIZE  USR  63000 

1103  STOP 

1200  INPUT  'what  index-  file?  enter  full  name  of 
file..."  LINE  1$ 

1210  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  LOAD  UC0DE 
1220  RETURN 
1900  STOP 

2000  RANDOMIZE  USR  VAL  " 100" t  SAVE  •indxlP.Bb'  LINE 
VAL  '1000' 


LISTING  2 


if) 


JxLP.Cc  (itJDXLP.SS) 


60  REM  !  LPRINT 

70  REM  !  LIST 

80  REM  ! INT  +lf,a,b,c,ff 

90  REM  !USR  63C00 

1000  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  OPEN  *3,*lp* 

1010  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  POKE  16090,135 

1020  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  POKE  16094,3 

1030  OUT  127,15:  LPRINT  (c^f"^ 

I    2000  REM  !  OPEN  # 

3000  LET  lf=N0T  PI^LEf"ff=NOT  PI:  LPRINT 

3001  FOR  a=37925rt0  56024  STEP  13 

3002  IF  if =8  THEN  LPRINT  :  LET  ff»ff+i:  LET  lf=N0T  PI 

3003  IF  ff=55  THEN  OUT  127,12:  LET  ff=Q:  LPRINT  :  GO 


a 


■     °-Vi>i  eg  to  gO 


TO  3030   ^  V__ 

3005  FOR  b=l  TO  13 
3007  IF  b=lO  THEN   LPRINT  8  '? 
3010  LPRINT  CHRS  PEEK  (a+b)  AND  PEEK  (a+b)<>42? 
3012  IF  PEEK  (a+l)=32  THEN  LPRINT  :  STOP 
3015  NEXT  b 

3017  LPRINT  * 

3018  LET  lf=lf*l 
3030  !€XT  a 


L  104:0  OiT! 


,T\yrLr  ■  dot  vri,  65  :  out  9 


LISTING    3  rfi 


90  CLS  :  PRINT  'MSCRIPT  SORT  by  Bob  Mitchell. * " 
"Prior  to  using  this  utility^  SAVE  the  BLOCK  to  be 
sorted,  using  the  Kscript  block  markers.' 

91  PRINT  "Calculate  the  length  between  the  block- 
markers  and  have  this  at  hand.' 

92  PRINT  "This  utility  will  sort  up  to  200  lines 
with  max  length  of  64  chars.  Each  line  must  end  with 
a  line  feed  (code  13). ' 

93  INPUT  'i=cont.  0=menu  'jem  0 

94  IF  NOT  cm  THEN  PRINT  #4:  60  TO  M  PRINT  #4:  NEW 
97  PRINT  SVAL  *4*:  LOAD  "assort. Cc1 CODE 

©  98  PRINT  #VAL  '4':  LOAD  'taswi.Cx'CODE 


t 


SINC-LINK 


3/72 


2068 


iUU  PAPER  ..SSI  PI:J0RDER  S5N  PI:  INK  VAL  *9':  CLS  : 
INPUT  I'flSCRIPT  SORT]! wt  24  spaces  here)  BLOCK  SAVE 
file  name?  !ms  6)      LINE  a$ 

105  INPUT  'drive?  '0-3)  'idrv:  PRINT  S4:  60  TO  5rv 

HQ  PRINT  *4:  LOAD  nS+'.CT'CODE  47050 

HQ  RANDOMIZE  USR  VAL  '29000' 

500  CLS  :  BEEP  S6N  PI, VAL  '10':  INPUT  "name  fat 
save'  max  6  '?  LINE  si 

510  PRINT  *4:  SAVE  si+'.CT'CODE  47C5CPEEK 
3G3S6+25fc*PEEK  3QSS7 

520  CLS  :  PRINT  'BLOCK  saved?  now  load  MSCRIPT  and 
LOAD  relevant  file.  Delete  old  BLOCK?  use  <ADD>  to 
LOAD  new  BLOCK."-  STOP 

530  PRINT  INOT  PI? 'Press  a  key  for  menu.  "•  PAUSE 
NOT  Pi:  PRINT  WAL  '4':  50  TO  VAL  */":  PRINT  WAL 
•4".  MEW  # 

55U  CLEAR  :  PRINT  34:  SAVE  ' assart. Bb*  LINE  VAL 

"57Q" 

5t0  STOP 

57U  RANDOMIZE  USR  VAL  ' ICQ" '  OPEN  IVAL  'AVdd' 
580  60  TO  VAL  '90' 

LISTING  4- 

50  REM  !  LIST  ^SOrf.Cc 
tO  REM  !  LPS INT 
70  REM  !LEN  hS<=66 

90  REM  ! INT  *b,oa,cb,sf ,a,n, l, j,s,ss,  t 
90  REM  IUSR  29000 
100  REN  !  OPEN  * 

120  INPUT  'length  of  SLOCK  SAVE^  <=  12800  "b 
130  PRINT  'Storing  CODE  in ARRAY*"  FLASH  1? 
f' stana-by... 1 
140  Dirt  df (200,64) 

145  LET  oa=l :  LET  ob=2:  LET  sf=64:  LET  a=47050 

150  LET  s=oa 

160  LET  n=s 

170  FOR  i=a+i  TO  a+b 

180  FOR  j=l  TO  63 

190  LET  di(s,j)=Cu0!  PEEK  i 

195  IF  PEEK  1=13  THEN   GO  TO  210 

196  IF  i=a+b  THEN  LET  s=s-i:  50  TO  240 

197  LET  i=i+oa 
200  NEXT  j 
210  LET  S=5+C2 
220  NEXT  i 

h'x2*Q  CLS  :  BEE?  oa,VAL  '10':  RANDOMIZE  USR  64300:  FOR 
i=n  TO  s-1  :  PRINT  CHRS  3?d$(i):  NEXT  i 
^50  INPUT  *l=sort  0=save?  ';==:  IF  NOT  S3  THEN  60  TO 
VAL  "4^0" 

255  INPUT  'sort  on  which  col.?. (1-63)  'Jt 
260  CLS  :  PRINT  'sorting  on  col.  '?t"  FLASH  l?' 
stand-by...':  GO  SUB  VAL  '300':  GO  TO  VAL  '240" 
290  REM  shell-faun-  sort 
300  LET  sn=e 
310  LET  sn=INT  (sn/ob) 
320  IF  sr.voa  THEN   CLS  :  RETURN 
330  IF  sn/ob=INT  isn/cbi  THEN  LET  sn=sn+oa 
340  FOR  i=n  TO  e-sn 
350  LET  mm=i 

360  IF  dftuhft  TO  K«t$(m+sn,t  TO  )  THEN  60  TO  VAL 
*42Q" 


370  LET  h$=dS(miiJ 
380  LET  d$(wa)=d*Uro+sn) 
390  LET  dS(mst+sn)=hS 
400  LET  iws=iwi-sn 

410  IF  isffl/O  THEN   60  TO  VAL  '360' 

420  NEXT  i 

430  GO  TO  VAL  ^iO* 

440  CLS  :  PRINT  'storing  sorted  file  for  SAVE... 
FLASH  1?'  stand-by...  ':  LET  s=n:  POKE  a, 14:  FOR 
i=a+l  TO  a+b 

450  FOR  j=S5N  PI  TO  VAL  '63* 

460  POKE  i , CODE  d$(s,j) 

465  IF  CODE  d$(s,j)=13  THEN   60  TO  480 

446  IF  i=a+b  THEN  STOP 

468  LET  i=i+aa 

470  NEXT  j 

480  LET  s=s+oa  1 
490  NEXT  i 


This  is  a  little  postscript  for  indxLP  above.  Use  this 
listing  to  change  the  line  spacing  and  when  used  with 
condensed  font,  this  will  allow  up  to  1400  records  to 
be  printed  on  one  sheet  of  paper  (both  sides).  The 
DATA  in  lines  200  and  300  are  for  ay  Fastest  80 
printer.  Use  your  printer's  manual  to  get  the 
equivalents  for  your  machine. 

set  Is.  31 

10  REM  change  line  spacing 
15  GO  TO  100  ^ — -s  ^  °"       Z.ZP)  ., 
20  LET  a=IN  127:  IF?' a-237/HEN  RETURN 
22  50  TO  20  v — 
100  as  :  INPUT  'l=narrosi»  abnormal', Is 
110  IF  Is  THEN  60  SUB  2D:  RESTORE  200:  READ  j:  FOR 
i=l  TO  j:  60  SUB  20:  READ  k:  OUT  127, k:  SOT  i 
120  IF  NOT  Is  THEN  GO  SUB  20:  RESTORE  'Z2'  READ  j: 
FOR  i=l  TO  j:  GO  SUB  2D:  READ  k:  OUT  127, k:  NEXT  i 

130  PRINT  'Line  spacing  »?{ 'Normal'  AND  NOT  Is) 
H 'Narrow'  AND  1  s) 

140  PRINT  'Press  a  key  for  Ramdisk  Menu':  PAUSE  0: 
RANDOMIZE  USR  100  :  60  TO  4:  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  NEW 
200  DATA  3,27,65,8    Wiz.  inc^^r  4er<^ 
300  DATA  2,27,50      Vc  meK  ^^er--f«A 
400  STOP 

1000  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  SAVE  'setls.Bi*  LINE  100 


Disk  Name  :  V01 
Archives 

Seal-permanent  storage  of 
programs  under  development. 
"890316. 


indxLP.Cc 
rcpns.CT 
rcptas.CT 
index. £2 
sysvar.Bp 


001  rep 
001  rcpIN.Bl 
001  rcpaex.CT 
001  mdxLP.Bb 
001  1685-38.  B» 


001  index. Bx 
001  r cp IN. 32 
001  proseq.Bl 

001  uesbrr.Cl 

002  setls 


001 
002 
001 
001 
001 


LARKEN  LKDOS  1986 
Track/Side  040/002 
Total  Files  015 
Free  Blocks  062 


DISK  V01 


DATE  890409 


A    CLOSE- SPACED  LABEL 


STNC-I  TNK 


2068 


Modifing  ARTIST   II    for  the 
LARKEN  DISK  SYSTEM 

Artist    II    is  a  great  Spectrum 
graphic  program.   It  has  so  many 
features   that:,    it    is   the  best 
program  avail iable. 

Below   is   the  basic  listing 
showing   the  necessary 
modifications  required  to  be 
us  e  d  with   the  LARKEN  D I SK 
SYSTEM .  Enter   the  lines  as 
indicated  and  delete   the  other 
lines   in   the  program. 

Find   the  menu  which  has  the 
exit   to  basic   function.  Edit  the 
lines  and   then  ENTER  SOTO  1.  Do 
an  NMI   of   the  Program*   Rename  * 
the  program   to  ARTIST .02  . 
That f s  al 1  . 

The  program  has  error  proofing 
in   the  SAVE »    LOAD  and  ERASE 
features.   The  program  can  send 
a  copy  to  a  large  printer,  but 
it  has  to  be  EPSON  compatable. 

Version  LKDOS  1.0  04/39 

A  disk  copv   <3  1/4  ssdd)  is 
avail ible   for  $7.00 

Mr.  Renato  Zannese 

613  Roding  Street 
Do wnsv  i  ew ,   On  t ar  i  o 
Canada 
M3M  2A6 


1  POKE  23676,1:    RANDOMIZE  USR 
100:   OPEN  #37MLP":    RANDOMIZE  US 

R   100:    POKE  16093,32 

2  LET  n=VAL   "  1 " :    BORDER  PEEK 
'.'AL   "23033" :    RANDOMIZE  USR  VAL  " 
37793":   LET  D=PEEK  VAL  "23122" : 
LET  A=PEEK  VAL   "23120":    LET  B=VA 
L  "49152":    LET  C=VAL  "6912":  60 
SUB  VAL   "3":    GO  TO  VAL  "2" 

3  IF  A=VAL   "207"  THEN     COPY  : 
RETURN 

4  IF  A< VAL   "207"   AND  A > VAL  "2 
02"   THEN     IF  PEEK  VAL  " 23676 "»n 
THEN     GO  TO  45 

3  CLS  :    IF  A=VAL  "215"  THEN 
PRINT   "LOAD":    PRINT   :   GO  SU 
B  90 

6   IF  A=VAL   "214"   THEN  PRINT 
"   SAVE  ":    PRINT   :   GO  SUB  96 

3   IF  A=VAL  "212"  THEN  RANDOM 
IZE  USR   100:    CAT   :    PAUSE  NOT  PI: 
RETURN 


9  LET  B=VAL  "16334":    IF  A=VAL 
"1"   THEN     GO  TO  VAL  "70" 

10  LET  B=VAL  "47372":  LET  C=VA 
L   "396":    IF  A=VAL   "203"   THEN  GO 

TO  VAL  "70" 

11  IF  A=VAL  "209"   THEN     GO  TO 
VAL  "30" 

12  IF  A=VAL  "211"  THEN  PRINT 
"ERA  S  E  ":    PRINT  :   GO  SUB  VA 
L  "100" 

13  LET  C=VAL  "763":    IF  A=VAL  " 
2"   THEN     GO  SUB  VAL  "42":    GO  TO 
VAL  "70" 

14  IF  A=VAL  "3"   THEN     GO  SUB  V 
AL  "42":   GO  TO  VAL  "30" 

15  IF  A=VAL  "210"  THEN     LET  D= 
ABS  <D-n> 

20   IF  A=VAL  "202"   THEN  STOP 
40  RETURN 

42  INPUT  "Which  Font   ";b:  LET 
b=PEEK   ( 2607 1 +b+b ) +VAL  "  256 " *PEE 
K    <26072+b+b):  RETURN 

45   IF  PEEK  VAL  " 23676 "=n  THEN 
POKE  VAL  "23120" , A- VAL  "203":  R 
AN DOM IZE  USR  VAL  "64800" :  RETURN 

50  RETURN 

60  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  CAT 

65  INPUT  "FILENAME   (6  CHARS) : 
"  ?  A* 

66  IF  LEN  A$>6  THEN     GO  TO  63 

67  RETURN 

70  PRINT   "   LOAD   ":    GO  SUB  VAL 
"60" 

74  RANDOMIZE  USR  100!  LOAD  A$+ 
"  .Cx"C0DE  B:  RETURN 

30  PRINT   "   SAVE   " s    GO  SUB  VAL 
"60" 

34  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  SAVE  A$+ 
" . C  x " CODE  B , C :  RETURN 

90   INPUT  "Load  File  <Y/N)?";a* 

92  IF  a$="N"  OR  a$="n"  THEN  R 
ETURN 

94  GO  SUB  70:  RETURN 

96  INPUT  "Save  File  (Y/N)?";a$ 

97  IF  a$="N"  OR  a$="n"  THEN  R 
ETURN 

93  GO  SUB  SOs  RETURN 

100   INPUT  "Erase  a  File  ?(Y/N)" 
;a$ 

102   IF  a$="N"  OR  a$="n"   THEN  R 
ETURN 
104  GO  SUB  60 

106  RANDOMIZE  USR   100:   ERASE  AS 
+".Cx":  RETURN 


SINC-LINK 


QL  QL  QL  9L  QL  8L  Ql_  QL  QL  QL  QL  QL   QL  9L  SL  QL   QL  QL  QL  QL  QL  8L  QL  QL 


IN  OUR  LAST  ISSUE  I  WAS  TELLING  YOU  ABOUT  PURCHASING  AN  R.  G.  B.  MONITOR 
THAT  DIDN'T  WORK  WITH  MY  QL.  I  AM  HAPPY  TO  BE  ABLE  TO  TELL  YOU  THAT 
AFTER  MUCH  EFFORT  BY  MANY  MEMBERS  IT  WORKS  GREAT.  FROM  THE  DATE  OF 
PURCHASE  TO  DATE  OF  OPERATION  WAS  FORTY  DAYS,  I'M  NOT  SURE  WHETHER  THATS 
A  SIGN  OF  SOMETHING  OR  NOT. 

THE  PROBLEM  WAS  MAINLY  IN  THE  CONNECTION  OUT  OF  THE  QL.  FROM  THE 
LITERATURE  IT  DEPENDED  WHAT  MODEL  OF  QL  YOU  HAD.  MY  PERSONAL  OPINION  IS, 
•I  DON'T  KNOW!.  AT  THE  MARCH  MEETING  OF  THE  CLUB  IT  WAS  DECIDED  TO  HOLD 
A  MEETING  OF  THE  QL  GROUP  AT  HUGH  HOWIE'S  HOME  SO  THAT  THE  CLUB  MEMBERS 
IN  THE  HAMILTON  BURLINGTON  AREA  COULD  ATTEND.  HUGH  HAD  ALSO  PURCHASED 
THE  SAME  MODEL  *  RGB'  AS  I  HAD,  BUT  HIS  WAS  WORKING  GREAT.  WE  ARE  AGREED 
THAT  THE  CREDIT  FOR  THIS  GOES  TO  SCHENNELLY  STOUGHTON,  CLUB  MEMBER  FROM 
LINDSAY,  WHO  MADE  UP  HUGH'S  CABLE.  IN  TALKING  WITH  THE  GUYS  IT  WAS 
AGREED  THAT  I  WOULD  TAKE  MY  CABLE  TO  THE  MEETING  TO  SEE  IF  ANY  ONE  HAD 
AN  IDEA  AS  TO  WHY  I  WAS  HAVING  SO  MUCH  DIFFICULTY.  AFTER  THE  BUSINESS 
PART  WAS  OVER  JEFF  TAYLOR  (CLUB  PRES.)  SENEN  RACKI  AND  MIKE  FERRIS 
(QLers  FROM  HAMILTON),  SENEN  ALSO  BOUGHT  ONE  OF  THE  SAME  MONITORS  AND 
WAS  HAVING  PROBLEMS  USING  THE  TV  MODE.  WITH  THE  USE  OF  HUGH'S  EQUIPMENT 
THEY  WENT  TO  WORK  ON  THE  CABLE  AND  AFTER  A  FEW  ATTEMPTS  THEY  HAD  MY 
CABLE  WORKING  ON  HUGH'S  SET.    'THANKS  FELLOWS. 

JEFF  AND  I  LEFT  THE  MEETING  AROUND  10;30.  JEFF  WAS  SURE  I  WOULD  WANT  TO 
CALL  GEORGE  CHAMBERS,  ON  ARRIVAL  AT  TORONTO,  TO  GO  TO  GEORGE'S  AND  TEST 
THE  CABLE  ON  MY  UNIT.  AFTER  MUCH  DISCUSSION  I  CONVINCED  HIM,  NOT  REALLY, 
THAT  IT  COULD  WAIT  UNTIL  GEORGE  WOULD  BE  FREE  TO  SPEND  SOME  TIME  AT  IT. 
AS  IT  TURNED  OUT,  MUCH  TIME  WAS  NEEDED.  THE  CABLE  DIJN'T  WORK  ON  MY  SET. 
THE  SIGNAL  WAS  COMING  THROUGH  BUT  IT  WOULD  NOT  SETTLE  DOWN  TO  A  FIRM 
PICTURE.  I  POINTED  OUT  THAT  HUGH  HOWIE,  ON  ONE  OF  OUR  OTHER  ATTEMPTS, 
WONDERED  ABOUT  THE  CONNECTION  AT  THE  MONITOR  END  OF  THE  CABLE.  GEORGE 
CHECKED  THIS  AGAIN  BUT  IT  MADE  NO  DIFFERENCE.  THEN  HE  DECIDED  TO  CHECK 
UNDER  THE  UNIT.  WHEN  HE  TILTED  THE  UNIT  FORWARD  THE  DOUBLE  WINDOW  COLOUR 
AND  ALL  APPEARED  AS  IT  SHOULD.  GEORGE  PUT  A  CLAMP  ON  THE  CABLE  AND  IT 
HAS  WORKED  EVER  SINCE.  THANKS  GEORGE  AND  THANKS  MARJORIE,  ( MAR JORIE 
GEORGE'S  WIFE).  WE  SPENT  SO  MUCH  TIME  GETTING  THE  UNIT  GOING  MARJORIE 
HAD  US  STAY  FOR  SUPPER.  SEE  WHAT  FAITH  CAN  DO  (WITH  LOTS  OF  HELPERS) . 
IT  WAS  WORTH  THE  WAIT.  IT  IS  BEAUTIFUL.  THE  COLOURS  ARE  TREMENDOUS.  THE 
TEXT  IS  VERY  SHARP.    THE  PRICE  WAS  RIGHT. 

P.S.  IT  IS  NOW  ENCASED  IN  A  SUIT  BOX  SPECIALLY  CUT  AND  PASTED.  W  K 
(BILL)  LAWSON 

DO  YOU  KNOW  THAT  THE  KEYWORD  -  LIST  -  CAN  GIVE  YOU  A  HARD  COPY  OF  A 
PROGRAM  LISTING?  YEP,  YA  GOTTA  HAVE  A  PRINTER. TRY  IT,  WITH  OR  WITHOUT 
LINE  NUMBERS. 

lO  OPEN  #4,SER1 
20  LIST  *4 
30  CLOSE  4 

WRITE  AND  SHARE  YOUR,    "TRIALS  tc  TRIUMPHS",    WITH  US.  WKL 


SINC-LINK 


A  Z88  USERS  GROUP 
by  G.  Chambers 

One  of  our  members,  Phil  Hudsmith,  tells  me 
there  is  a  Sinclair  Z88  computer  users  group 
in  England,  which  welcomes  overseas  members* 

They  put  out  a  newsletter  called  the  Z88 
EPROM.  Cost  for  a  year  subscription  (6  issues) 
to  the  newsletter  is  14  pounds  for  overseas 
subscribers.  (For  some  reason  the  subscription 
price  to  USA  is  12  Pounds*  Doesn't  seem  right, 
does  it?) 

Anyway,  for  anyone  who  is  interested,  the 
address  isi 

Dept  S  -  Z88  USERS  CLUB 
68  Wellington 
Long  Eaton, 
Nottingham, 

United  Kingdom    NG10  4NG 

***************** 


LARKEN-CRACKING  SPECTRUM 
PROGRAMS 
BY  G.  CHAMBERS 

In  the  last  issue  I  described 
how  to  crack  the  program 
TECHNICIAN  TED.   It  used  a  quite 
involved  procedure  to  save  the 
code  from  disk  to  tape,  then 
back,  into  the  computer.  Since 
then  I  have  written  two 
utilities  which  simplify  the 
process  considerably. 

The  first  programs   is  called 
"crackr . B1" .   It  searches  the 
disk  for  the  named  program,  then 
saves  it  to  tape  on  a 
track-by-track  basis.  The  first 
track  is  saved  starting  at 
address  24000   1.1  use  9-track 
NMI-saves)  . 

A  companion  utitity,  called 
"saverl . Bl" ,   loads  the  tape  back 
into  the  computer,    from  whence 
it  can  be  saved  to  disk,  or 
tape . 


The  "saverl . Bl"  utility  has 
several  interesting  features 
about  it.  Becaus#e  the  program 
to  be  loaded  from  tape  starts  at 
24000,   there  is  not  much  room 
for  a  BASIC  loader  program.  This 
was  solved  by  having  the  Basic 
program  load  some  m/C  into  the 
printer  buffer  at  address  23296. 
This  m/c  does  two  things.  Part 
of   the  code  contains  a  LINE 
DELETE  function,   while  the 
balance  of  the  code  is  a  tape 
loader  utility. 

After  installing  the  m/c  the 
Basic  program  makes  a  USR  call 
to  delete  all  but  one  key  line 
of   itself,   lowers  RAMtop  to 
address  23999,    then  makes  a 
second  USR  call.   The  second  USR 
call,   to  address  23300,  loads 
the  programs  previously  saved  to 
tape,  back  into- the  computer. 

All  that  needs  to  be  done  now 
is  to  locate  the  starting  USR 
address.  The  hard  part,  that 
is  ! 

******************************* 


SINC-LINK 


INTERFACE  FOR   RAM    IN   T/S   2068    I/O  PORTS 

Larry  Crawford 
357  Reynolds  Rd 
London  Ontario 
Canada  N6K  2P3 


Exoanding  memory    into   the  EXROM  and  DOCK  banks  is 
reasonably  simpie   ( SWN  2/3,    3/4).    However,    one  must 
be  very  cautious  uinen  enabling   chunks  of  RAM  in 
these  banks   to  avoid   interfering  with   the  operation 
of   the  system.    Far  example,    if  you  want   to  use  any 
of  the  ROM  routines,   you  will   need   to  be  sure  that 
the  appropriate  chunks  of  Home  bank  are  enabled 
before  you  call    them.   Some  hardware  add-ons  also 
use  chunks  of  EXROM  and  Dock   banks  and  could  get  in 
the  way.    There   is  also  the  complication  of  an 
Interruption   fielder  which  we  needn't  go  into  here. 

The  simplest  way  around   these  problems  is   tQ  leave 
chunks  0  to  3  of  Home  bank  enabled  at  ail   times  and 
to  enable  only  chunks  4   to  7  of  any  other  banks 
added.    With  an  appropriate   interface,  E::aansion 
banks  can  be  added  and  concroilea  through   the  I/O 
□arts.   Nineteen  carts  are  used  by   the  2268  system.  • 
by  a  MODEM,    and  a  few  others  may   be  used  by  other 
hardware,    leaving  over   2B0  ports  availaole   for  RAM. 
Even  at  only  32K  per  port,    that  amounts  to  over  6.5 
MEGAbytes  which  can  be   imolemented  without  getting 
in   the  way  of   the  system's  normal  operation. 


For  examole.    if  E;:oansion   bank  01    is   to   be  enaoled, 
OUT   1,3  would  cause  Din    14    (cutout    I)    of  Ul    to  go 
LOW.    This  transition    from  HIGH  to  LOW  causes   the  0 
NOT  outout    (pin    13)    of    the   flip-flap   < U2 )    to  go  LOW. 
This   in   turn  enables   the  second  74  133    (U3).    A  small 
LED  connected   to  pin  5    indicates   that   the  bank  is 
active.    Its  address   pins  are  connected   to  A13.    A 1 A  & 
A15.    Thus   it  acts  as  a  chunk  decoder,    i.e.    output  * 
enables  chunk  4,   etc.    This  decoding   is   for  memory 
locations,   not   the  chunk  selection  register.    In  the 
command  OUT   1,0   that  was  used,    the  0   is  a  dummy 
PArametBr  needed  to  satisfy  the  structure  of  BASIC. 
Anu  value  uo   to  255  could  have  been  used.    In  M/C, 
the  instructions  LD  C.01   and  OUT   (C),A  would 
accomplish   the  same  thing.   There  is  no  need  to 
assign  a  value  to  register  A.    It   is  not  decoded. 

To  disable  the  Expansion  bank,   OUT  0.0  causes  pin  15 
of  Ul   to  go  LOW   (and  incidentally  pin   14  to  go  HIGH) 
This  forces  pin  8   (Q  NOT)   of   the  second  flip-flap  of 
U2  to  go  LOW.    The  first   flip-flop  is  RESET,  causing 
pin   13  to  go  HIGH  thus  disabling   the  chunk  decoder. 
All    its  outouts  go  HIGH,    disabling  all    the  6264 
SRAMs  connected  to   it.    An  OUT  244.0  will   now  return 
the  computer   to  normai   Home  bank  operations. 

By  connecting   pin  27  of   the  6264  sockets  to  the  5v 
rail    instead  of   the  WR  NOT   line,    it   is   passible  to 
install   27123  EPROMs   instead  of  SRAMs.    In   this  way, 
all  sorts  of  M/C  routines  could  be  called  up  with  a 
minimum  of  fuss. 


Each  Expansion   pank  enabled   in    this  way  acts  exactly 
like  a  Dock  bank.   Therefore,    its  active  chunks  can 
be  controlled  through   I/O  part  244.   For  example, 
OUT  2,0   :   OUT  244.16  would  enable  chunk  4  of 
Expansion  bank  02.   OUT  244,0  would  disaole   it.  The 
Dock  bank  has  priority  over  Home  Bank.    Thus  any 
cnunks  enabled  in  an  Expansion  bank  automatically 
disable  the  corresponding   chunks   in  Home  bank. 
OUT  244,240  would  enable  chunks  4  to  7  of  an  active 
Expansion  bank. 

The  circuit  given  here  uses  a  74LS13S  to  decode  the 
I/O  port  addresses.    It  can   therefore  control  7 
additional  banks  at  memory   ( 224K  at  32K  per  bank). 
A  74LS154  decoder  would  permit   15  Expansion  banks 
for  480K  of  extra  RAM.    Additional   decoders  could  be 
added,    of  course,    to  control   even  more  banks. 


CONSTRUCTION 

A  4"*  4.5"   board  will   hold  64K.    I  used  a  one-sided 
board  with  a  4*  x  0.5"   strip  shavea  to  half  thickness 
glued  into  a  matching  notch   in   the  main  board  to 
make  the  necessary   two-sided  edge  connector.   All  the 
tracks  possible  were   laid  out   including  solder  pads 
along   the  too  edge  to  make  it  easy  to  attach  a 
second  board  behind  the  first  with  short  jumpers. 
The  second  board  will   not  require  Ul   nor  edge 
connectors.   After  etching  and   installing  the  sockets 
and  bypass  capacitors.    I  made  the  rest  of  the 
connections  with  wire  wrao  wire  soldered  point-to- 
point.    I  sprayed  the  oottom  of   the  board  with  clear 
laauer  to  hold  the  numerous  little  wires  in  place. 
It  Plugs  into  an  Oliger  expansion  board  slot. 


HOW    IT  WORKS 


When   the  OUT  command   is  used   in  BASIC,   or  the 
OUT   (C),A  instruction   in  M/C,    the  number  of   the  I/O 
port   is  put  onto  address   lines  A0   to  A7.    Then  the 
IORQ  and  WR   lines  go  '-0W  simultaneously.   When  they 
are  both  LOW.    the   first  7413S   iUl)    decoder  is 
enabled.    It   decodes  adaress   lines  A0,   Al,    &  A2  and 
oulis  one  of   its  S  outputs  LOW.    This  LOW  output  is 
usea  to  select  one  of  7  passible  Expansion  banks. 


WR  * 


Ul 


T 


AO-AI2 


zJ 


To  ornr* 

747J  .. 
CACM  8AM  K 


T/S  2063 
EXPANSION  BANK 
INTERFACE 


All  *l«  A  I* 


-Li.  ^1 


Ul 


7 -415  158   De<ao««  -  seutcrs  cxoamks 

THAOU4H  l/o  POCT*  04-47 


UZ    74LS73    0u»l  FUf-FWf  -  sN*»v.es 

O*  ODAtLH  K*SAMKS.  O0MHBCTC » 

A*   BANK    4  1  .. 

U3    74 LSI 38  Oeco»e«.-  setter*  chunks 

Of  e*BA,NK. 


SANK <M 


U4 


CHUN*.  4. 


U4 


chunk  y 


CHu*tc  4 


OA 


U4 


Chunk  (» 


uz 

41 


CH«NK 5 


U4 


U4 


CHU«< 7 


IVW* 


az 


U4 

CHUhK  7 


us 


U3 


Jl 


Expansion  Samk    In -re  RFAce  Co****'**  Layout 


U4    4Z4*       SK*  S  SRAt*».  SHa^N 

CONNeCTCI     AS    CHUNK  A. 


z  jn;; 


STNC-I  TNK 


riLL    VOU    EUER    WANTED    TO    KNOW  ON 
THE    CP RE    AND    FEEDING    OF  YOUR 
DISK    DRIUE  I  S3 

ft   r  e  v  i  ew  o  f    two  man ua  is    -  D 15 K 
SEP'.-1  ICE    MANUAL    III    and    THE  DISK 
DRIUE   TUTORIAL    both    written  by 
Jo  h  n   J  .    U  i  I  l  i  ams  ..  M5EE  .  published 
by    C0N5UMERTR0NIC5    CO.,  2011 
Crescent  Dr..   P.O.   Drawer  537, 
ft  i.  amogo  rdo  ■    New  Mexico   33310  USft 


Uhen    I    first   entered    the  wonder 
world   of    the   d  i  s  k   drive;    I  felt 
as    thou ah    I  had  entered   a  whole 
new  world   that  spoke   a  foreign 
tongue.   Having  a   curious  mind,  I 
learned  about  TT/SUG  and  joined 
hoping   to   be   enlightened   in  the 
use   of    this  wonderful  addition 
t  o  my  2063 .  The  mo  r  e   I  learned, 
the  more   interested   I  became  in 
just   how   this   equipment  worked. 
I  asked   George   Chambers    if   he  or 
someone    in    the   Club   knew  of  any 
books   or  manuals   concerning  the 
disk   drive  -units.    By    r  e  t  u  r  n  ma  i  I 
he   sent  me   an   advertisement  from 
CON3UMERTRON ICS  and    I  sent    for  2 
of    their  publications. 


DISK  DRIUE  TUTOR IftL  i2nd  Edit.) 
is  a  23  page  manual  that  starts 
out  in  very  general  terms  and 
tells  about  different  drives  and 
disk  sizes  and  adds  some  advice 
on  what  you  can  do  and  what  you 
shouldn't  do  yourself  regarding 
servicing  your  disk  drive. 

Chapter  2  gives  a  short  history 
of  disk  drives  and  the  companies 
that  make  them.  The  various  type 
o  f  d  r  i  v e s  f  r  om  the  old  3  inch  to 
the  newer  3  inch  disk  drives  are 
explained  as  well  as  the  number 
or"    tracks    that   have  evolved. 


Mixing  and  matching  or"  drives 
dealt  with  and  what   can  happe 
if  you   try    to    format   a  disk  t 
more   tracks    than   a  disk   can  r 
or  write   and   the  damage   it   c a 
do    to   your   drive   unit   head.  T 
stepper    and   spindle  mo t  o  r  s    a  r e 
explained    in   detail   as    is  the 
c o n e    i  e v e  r    assembly.    Each   of  the 
chapters    is  well    covered  with 
d i  a  g r  ams   and   picture  of    the  i 
be  in a   discussed.   These   are  ve 
readable  diagrams,   unlike  so 
many   "How  To"  manuals. 


1  s» 

;n 
o 

e  a  d 
n 

he 


t  em 
ry 


Chapter   3  gets    into   detail  of 
the  disk    itself   -  how   the  tracks 
are  set   and   how  the  sector   on  a 
disk   is   arranged.   Even   a    tip  on 
how   to  modify   a  disk    if   you  have 
a   53  drive   and  want    to   use  the 
other   side   of   a   D  3  disk    to   s a v e 
50";  o  f  y  o  u  r   disk  price! 

Ch spur   4.  goes    into   s ome   o  f  the 
technicalities   of    interfacing,  ft 
ieq u e n  c e  o  f  con  t  r  cue  r   o p e  r  a  t  i  o n 
is   gone    through   step    by   step  and 
d  i  a  g  r  a m s   of   several    brands  of 
interfaces   are  decribed. 

Chapter   5  describes    the  format 
process   and   explains    the  anatomy 

0  f   a   disk  with    b i ow  up   d  i a g  r  ams . 
IBM,   ftPPLE  and   COMMODORE  format 
families   are   discussed  with  the 
differences   described.   Clock  and 
data    timing    char  t s    a  re    c  I e a r  I y 
illustrated   along  with  density 
charts    for   single   and  double 
density   and    l  or   2  sided  disks. 

Chapter   6  gets    into  compatabil- 

1  t  y  or  the  inc omp  a  t  a  b  i  1 1  y  of  one 
system   to   another.   The  uploading 


a n  d  d o  w n  i  o a  d  i  n  g  u  s  i  n  g  the  m ode  m 
for  data  files.  Protection  types 
such  as  passwords  or  access  code 
and  the  use  of  bogus  sectors  and 
the  problem  of  preventing  honest 
backup  for  the  user  are  brought 
out   in    this   chapter,   ft  section 

called    COPY -BY -FILE    VS.  BACKUP 

describes    the  differences    in  the 
two  methods   of   copying    from  an 
original  disk. 

Chapter   7  covers  recommendations 
in   19  instances  with  names  and 
addresses  of  suppliers  of  disk 
drives   and  disks  as  well  as  the 
names   and  addresses  of   repair  or 
ma  i  n  t  e  n  a  c  e    f  i  rms  . 

CONSUMERTRGN ICS   CO.    repairs  diSK 
drives   FREE:    They   diagnose  the 
problem  and   r&paic   the  unit  and 
if    it    can    be    fixed    it  will  be 
and   then   is   shipped   back.    If  it 
is  not   repairable   they  will  send 
it    back    to   you.   They   do   this  to 
improve   their  expertise   in  this 
area.  They  do  NOT  sell  drives  or 
parts.   They  also  accept  broken 
drives,    parts   or  manuals   so  they 
can    further   educate  THEMSELUES! 


ft l l  in  ail  -  this 
tutorial  and  well 
involved. 


is  a  v  e  r  y 
worth  the 


good 
cost 


************** 


DISK   SERUICE   MftNUftL    III    is    a  33 
page  manual  plus  an  3  page  DISK 
DRIUE  MftNUftL  plus   an  3  page  DISK 
ADDENDUM . 


ft  list 
pretty 
manua  I 
Chap  . 


0  f   t h e   table  of  contents 
well   covers   this  superb 

1  Gene  r  a  l 

II  Operation  advice 

III  Error  messages 
IU       Diagnostics  and 

Troubleshooting 

u  Maintenance 

u I  Sp e e d   ftd  .jus  trne n  t 

U II  R -u  Head   a  I i g nme n  t 

U hi  Electronics   &  Repair 

IX  Miscellaneous  repair 

x  Drive    t e s  t   s  t a  t  ion 

XI  Repair  techniques 

XII  Drive  analysis 

s  o f  twa  re  critique 
x III  Drive  mo  d  i fications 

APPENDIX    ft    --  GLOSSARY 


Th  i  S    is  a 

m  a  n  u  a  i  for 
interested 
inside  the 
to  do  when 
and  not  ju 
w  r  o  n  a 
those 


go 

r" 


eat  nuts   and  bolts 
those    that   are  really 
i  n  wh  at   takes  place 
disk  drive  and  what 
something  goes  wrong, 
t  when   something  does 
but   how   to  prevent   so m e 
things    f  r om  g  o  i  n g  w r  o n  g 


by  preventative  ma  intenance 


ftg ain  there  are  good 
well  as  photos  of  dr 
n urn be r  o  f  c h arts  an d 
v  i  ews  of  the  drive  h 
the  parts  under  disc 
ADDENDUM  is  an  updat 
DISK   DRIUE    MANUAL  ha 

o  f  ma nufacturers  add 
terminology  list.  A 
devoted  to  the  clean 
drive  and  the  adjus t 
drive  speed.  Lubrica 
paragraph  on  the  T  r  a 
and  End  Stop  fill-  ou 
set   of  ma  n  u  a  is . 


diagrams  as 
i  v e  units.  A 

e  x  p  i  o  d  e  d 
e  l  p  identify 
ussion.  The 
e   and  the 
s   a  listing 
r esses   and  a 
section  is 
ing  of  the 
me  n  t   of  the 
t  ion    and  a 
ck   OO  sensor 
t    this  fine 


Send 


for  their 
Review  by 


catalog! 
George   G .    C a r  y 
P.O.   Box  336 
Co  loma ,    CA  95613 


STNr_l  TNK 


9 


QLi  ps 

by -Hi  Howie 

Don't  know  if  you  have  ever  noticed  it,  but 
the  QL  actuaiiy  gives  you  warning  some  tine 
before  it  runs  out  of  memory. 

If  you  are  ever  working  on  an  Unexpanded 
QL,  as  you  get  near  to  the  point  of  running 
out  of  memory,  the  QL  starts  to  SLOW  DOWN,  not 
very  noticeable  at  first,  but  eventually  it  is 
very  obvious.  The  cursor  just  seems  to  chug 
along  the  line  as  if  it  were  running  out  of 
steam,  as  it  really  is.  Makes  you  want  to  give 
it  a  hand  and  move  it  physically. 

The  first  time  I  came  across  this 
phenomena  I  was  working  QUILL,  and  in  the 
process  of  editting  the  document,  I  became 
annoyed  at  the  speed  at  which  the  cursor  was 
moving  along  the^line,  it  was  painfully  slow, 
so  much  so  that  I  gave  up  and  went  to  bed. 

Next  day  I  loaded  the  document  in.  and  I 
thought  it  was  not  loading,  thought  I  was 
going  to  get  one  of  those  wonderful  messages 
'Bad  or  changed  medium',  but  eventually  it  was 
loaded  and  I  continued  working.  A  short  time 
later  it  was  dead  slow  and  stop,  then  'Out  of 
Memory ' . 

Have  you  ever  had  one  of  those  old  spring 
loaded  hand  cranked  record  players?  The  spring 
is  just  about  wound  down,  and  the  record  goes 
slower  and  slower,  and  it  goes  out  with  a 
grooooaaan.  That's  how  it  is.  Don't  mean  to 
make  you  show  your  age!  Wind  up  the  old  spring 
and  listen  to  that  'Speedup*  (We  did  not  call 
it  acceleration,  in  those  days) 

Luckily  I  had  purchased  the  512  Expanderam. 
So  1  saved  the  document,  switched  off, 
installed  the  512,  loaded  up,  and  in  seconds 
flat  I  was  tearing  around  all  over  the  place. 
Just  like  stepping  out  of  an  old  clunker  into 
a  Jag  and  putting  your  foot  to  the  floor. 
Whoosh.. .you're  gone... 

Which  is  one  thing  you  should  remember,  if 
you  are  installing  or  removing  anything  in 
that  expansion  slot  at  the  left  of  the  QL. 
SWITCH  IT  OFF.  There  are  so  many  pins  and 
ports  in  that  small  area,  it  is  very  easy  to 
make  a  slight  error,  (apart  from  the  voltage 
a  urge )  and  bang  goes  a  few  more  dollars. 

Maybe  that ! s  what ' a  wrong  with  me ,  I'm 
running  out  of  memory,  at  least  I  am  gooing  a 
lot  slower  than  I  used  to. 

You  know  those  fancy  little  doo-thickey 
things  which  you  have,  to  carry  all  the  info 
in  your  QL?  Those  gadgety  little  things  you 
ALWAYS  take  out  of  their  cases  the  wrong  way 
up?  Then  You  have  to  switch  them  around  to 
insert  them?  Why  not  try  this? 

The  end  cap  of  your  cartridge  will 
probably,  or  should  have,  something  on  it  to 
indicate  what  is  the  general  idea  of  the 
contents.  The  case  does  not  always  have 
anything  on  it,  as  the  cartridge  does  not 
always  go  into  the  case  from  which  it  came. 

What  hapoens?  You  put  the  cartridge  in  a 
case,  put  it  on  the  shelf  or  whatever,  and  the 
next  time  you  have  to  use  it,  to  be  sure  you 
will  pull  out  the  cartridge  upside  down  up  or 
whatever,  then  you  try  to  insert  it  in  the 
drive,  won't  go,  turn  it  around  in  your 
fingers,  and  start  all  over  again. 

Which  reminds  me  of  the  chap  up  at  the 
Trailer  Camp  where  I  spend  a  lot  of  time.  Last 
year  he  was  putting  up  hia  gazabo,  and  when  it 
was  finished  he  said  he  only  made  one 
mistake,  he  put  the  roof  on  inside  out.  It  is 
one  of  those  portable  jobs  made  of  plasticised 
fabric.  My  reply  to  him  was  that  he  had  not 
put  the  roof  on  inside  out,  but  UPSIDE  DOWN. 
Now  


With  a  toothpick  or  a  very  fine  brusn.  (I 
prefer  a  toothpick),  place  a  dot  of  white 
paint  on  the  top  of  the  cartridge  case.  A 
little  dab'l  do  ya.  The  wnen  you  put  the 
cartridge  in  the  case  with  the  dot  on  top,  you 
know  which  way  is  UP  to  remove  it.  Pull  it  out 
and  you  are  ready  to  place  it  right  way  up, 
straight  into  the  drive. 

No  more  fiddling,  you  can  get    on    with  the 
job  of  computing. 

The  QLer  with  a  fairly  large 
collection  of  cartridges,  can  have    a  bit  of  a 
problem  storeing  them.  One  solution  I  came  up 
with,  was  to  make  up  a  little  shelf  with  spaces 
wide  enough  to  hold  the  cartridges,  but  I  still 
had  the  problem  of  finding  that  which  I  wanted 
at  any  given  moment,  they  tended  to  drift  away 
from  where  I  last  left  them.  I  have  examined 
them  very  carefully,  and  I  don't  see  any  legs, 
but  they  must  have  them  the  way  they  drift 
around. 

Anyway,  I  thought  it  would  be  a  good 
idea  to  make  them  up  in  bundles  of  three  or 
four,  in  groups  according  to  the  class  of 
material  in  them  ,  this  way  there  might  not  be 
so  much  tendancy  for  them  to  get  lost  in  the 
wrong  pile. 

I  could  glue  them  to-gether,  in 
which  case  I  would  be  stuck  with  Cscuse  the 
pun)  the  stack  I  had  originally  made,  but  I 
would  not  be  able  to  reduce  the  size  of  the 
stack  without  some  breakage  of  cases  occurrir*~ 
Then  ray  mind  drifted  to    something  I  had  one 
seen  in  an  office,  used  for  sticking  notes  ana 
notices  on  the  walls.    So  I  went  out  and  found 
this  stuff,  and  by  taking  a  very  small  piece  of 
it  and  sticking  it  on  one  case,  placeing  the 
second  case  on  top,  with  a  very  little  pressure 
and  a  little  twist,  I  was  able  to  get  a  very 
firm  bond,  allowing  enough  space  for  any 
cartridge  to  be  removed  and  replaced  without 
any  interferance  from  its  neighbour.  A  little 
piece  about  the  size  of  a  pea  is  sufficient  to 
stick  four  or  five  cases  together. 

Each  stack  makes  up  an  ALBUM  of  any 
given  subject,  making  it  easier  to  locate  any 
given  cartridge. 

Easy  to  stack 
Easy  to  transport 
And  no  more  wandering 
We  really  do  hope. 

A  little  twist  help  settle  the 
cases  to-gether,  and  a  little  twist  helps  them 
come  apart  easily.  Simple  to  use.  No  fuss.  No 
muss.  You  can  make  an  album  as  large  or  small 
as  you  desire. 

The  material  is  similar  to  playdc.  * 
or  plasticine,  and  is  called    "FUN-TAK"  made 
by    LePage,  at  least  that  is  the  material  I 
used.    Also  very  handy  for  sticking  notes  on 
the  fridge  or  walls  around  your  work  station. 


CT»ir 


2068 


A  NOVELTY  PROGRAM 

This  listing  provides  a  novel 
title  display,   which  can  be 
incorporated  into  another 
program.    It  was  supplied  to  the 
club  by  David  Solly;    though  it's 
origional  source   is  not 
apparent . 

The  program  fires  a  program 
title  onscreen  in  machine-gun 
fashion.  The  title  can  be  up  to 
16  characters  long.   The  title  is 
placed  in  the  first  line  of  the 
progranit   and  in  this  listing  it 
is   "BANG !    YER  DEAD ! " 

Line  60  places  the  title  in 
the  top  left  corner  of  the 
screen^  It  cannot  be  seen 
normally  because  the  INK  has 
been  made  the  same  colour  as  the 
PAPER.   However  the  computer 
scans  the  area  of  the  screen  ( 
the  two  FOR/NEXT  loops,   X  and  Y) 
for  the  presence  of  pixels 
operated  by  the  wording,   and  if, 
in  LINE  90,   it  detects  an 
operated  pixel  the  routine  in 
LINES  100-140  comes  into  play  to 
spell  the  wording  out  in  the 
mid-section  of  the  screen. 

G.F.C. 


60  INK  ?s  PAPER  1:  BORDER  Is  C 
LS   s  PRINT    INK  1;AT  0,0; "BANG ! 
YER  DEAD!" 

70  FOR  x=0  TO  127 

80  FOR  y=0  TO  7 

90  IF    NOT  POINT  (x,y+l68)  THE 
N    GO  TO  150 
100  PLOT  2*x,3*y+80 
110  PLOT  0,0j  DRAW    OVER  l;2*x, 

3*y+79 

120  PLOT  0,0:  DRAW    OVER  l;2*x, 

3*y+79 

130  BEEP  .001,30 

1^0  PLOT  2*x,3*y+8l 

150  NEXT  y 

160  NEXT  x 

170  CLS   :  RUN 
9000  REM  Disc  Save 
9010  PRINT  USR  100:   SAVE  "Gun.Bl 
"  LINE  1 


PREDICTING   LUNAR  ECLIPSES 


Mel  Richardson 

Throughout  mankind's  history, 
its'      societies   have  placed 
great    importance   on    the  motions 
of    the  moon   around   our  earth. 
From   two   to  four    times   a  year, 
the  moon  passes  partly  or  wholly 
through   the  earth's  shadow. 
Predicting   this  event   was  in 
times  past,    a  -feat   o-f  great 
power  or  at    least   thought  really 
hard . 

Nowadays,    anyone  with  a 
microcomputer  can   do    it.  This 
must  be  significant  but    I  will 
leave  the  reader   to  ponder  or 
ignore   the  point   and   present  a 
program  that   does   all    the  magic. 

The  routine  was  assembled  by 
Herbert  Raab  o-f  Traun,  Austria 
■from  various  bits  published  in 
"SKY  U  TELESCOPE"  magazine  and 
converted  to  Sinclair  Basic  by 
me . 

The  program  asks   -for   a  year 
then  outputs  a   list  o-f  eclipses 
with   the  following  details:  the 
date  and    time  of  maximum 
eclipse,    the  magnitude    into  the 
penumbra  and  umbra   if  that 
occurs,    the  semiduration  times 
and    length  of   totality   if  that 
occurs.      Magnitudes   are    in  lunar 
diameters    into  the  shadow  zones 
and   Semiduration    times   are  the 
times   from  first  contact  with 
the  shadow  zone  to  maximum  or 
from  max    to    last   contact.  The 
time  of   maximum  eclipse    is  given 
in   Universal    Time    (UT)  and 
subtracting  your  locations' 
hours  West   of   Greenwich  gives 
the    local    time.      For  instance 
2300   hours   UT  minus   5   hours  is 
1800   hours  EST. 

Those  who   have   a  previous 
program  from   these  pages  called 
"NEW   ic  FULL  MOONS "    can  save 
slogging   through   all  those 
numbers  by   starting  with  that 
and   adding   the    lines   shown  here. 
The  program  here    is  "bare 
bones".      It  may  be  neccessary  to 
enter    CCONT)    for   some   years  and 
the   reader   can   add   any  displays 
that   seem    interesting.      My  own 
version   uses    ,,SRAM-HRU    for  a 
neat   title  page.      I   will  submit 
this   to   the  club    library  and 
anyone  with     SRAM-V3  can  easily 
merge    it.      Those  with   V2   can  do 
the   same  with  direction   from  the 
documen  t at  ion. 

The   results  are   accurate   to  a 
few  minutes   and    I    have  included 
one   for   you   to   check  your 
results  against. 


SINC-LINK 


11 


ZX81 


5) 


1 
10 
£0 
30 
40 
50 
50 
70 
30 


REM  ■mM^^MMzgi^ 
LET   R1=PI,  1-30 
LET  U=0 

PRINT    " ENTER  YEAR: 
INPUT  Y 
LET  G=I 

REM   _ 

1533   THEN   LET  G=0 
K0=INT    (  V>  -1900.'  *12.363 


LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 


90 
100 
110 
120 
130 

3S*T3 
140  LET 

K0 
150  LET 

*T2 
16  0  LET 
170  LET 
130  LET 
190  LET 

9 .2242 
200  LET 
210  LET 
220  LET 
230  LET 

5. 0253 
240  LET 
250  LET 
250  LET 
270  LET 

.  2964 
230  LET 
290  LET 
300  FOP. 
310  LET 
320  LET 
330  LET 
340  LET 

1 

350  LET 
Rl 

360  LET 
Rl 

370  LET 

330  LET 
IN  M5 

390  LET 


T  = • i -1399 . 5) /100 

T2=T*T 

T3  =T  *T  *T 

JO =2 4 I 5020+ 29 *KO 

F0  =  .  000 1173 -*T2-  .  0000001 

F0=F0+ . 75933+ . 53053363* 

F0=F0- , 000S37*T- . 000333 

J0s.J0  4.IMT  (F0) 
F0=F0- INT  CF0) 
M0=K0* . 03034321133 
M0=360* (M0-INT    (M0)  )  +35 

M0sM0- . 000O333 *T2 
M0=M0- . 00000347*T3 
Ml=KO* . 07171366123 
Ml=350* (MI-INT    (Ml)  j  +30 

M1=M1+ . OI0 7305 *T2 
M1=M1+ . 0000 1235 *T3 
B1=K0* . 03512535123 
51=350*  iBl-INT  (B1.U+2I 

B1=B1- . 0016S23*T2 
Bl=61-  .  0000-0239  *T3 
X  =  1  TO   27  STEP  2 
J=J0+14*X 
FsF0+ . 753294*X 
K=X  /2 

M5=  t.M0+K*29  .  10535603)  *R 

MS= CM1+K*3S5. 31591306) * 

BS  =  I.B1+K *390. 67050645)  * 

F=F-  .  40.53*5 IN  MS 

F=F+ ( . 1734- . 000393*T) *5 


LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 


400 

410 

420 

430 

440 

450 

460 

470 

430 

490 

500 

510 

520 
TO  1010 

530  LET 

540 

550 

=;R0 

570 

530 

590 

600 

510 

520 

530 

6  40 

550 
03    (BS) ) 

560  LET 

6  70  LET 

630  LET 

690  LET 


F=F  + 
F=F- 
F  =F  - 
F=F- 
F=F  + 
F=F  + 
JsJ+INT 
F=F- INT 


0161*5  IN 
0104*3 IN 
OO 74* 5  IN 
0051*5  IN 
002 1*3 IN 
5/1440. 
F 
F 


(2*M5) 

(£*B5t 

(M5-M5) 

(M5+M5) 

(2*M5) 


GO SUB  510 
NEXT  X 

STOP  

REM  Mil 

IF  flBS '  1 5  IN 


B5)  > .36  THEN  GO 


LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 
LET 


3=5. 19595- .0043*005  MS 
5=5+. 002*005  (2*M5) 
5=5- . 3233*C0o  M5 
3 =5- . 005* 0 0  5    t  M  5  +  M 5 ) 

=5 +. 0041*005  (MS-MS) 
O1=.207*SIN  M5 
C 1 =C 1 + . 0024*5 IN    ( 2  *M5) 
0 1=01- . 039*5 IN  MS 
0 1 =0  ±  + . 0 1 15  * 5 IN    i  2  *  MS ' 
0 1=01- . 0073*5IN  (M5+MS) 
01=01- . 0067* 3  IN  (MS-MS) 
01=01* . 0117*5IM  (2*55' 
D9=ABS    (3*3IN  (ES)+CI*C 

!  i  =  . 0059* . 0045*005  MS 
U=U- . 0132*005  MS 
U  =U + . 0004*00  5    I  2 *M6 ) 
U=U- . 0005*003  IMS+M6) 


"OO 

710 
720 
730 
740 
750 
750 
770 
730 
790 
300 
310 
320 
330 
340 
350 
350 


LET  PP=I.2347+U 
LET  RU=.7404-U 
LET   MP = < 1 . 5572+U-09 >  / . 345 
IF    MP'O   THEN    GOTO  1010 


0 


LET  MU= i 1 . 0I22-U-D9) / . 545 
LET  D5=1.5372+U 
LET  DS=1.0I29-U 
LET  D7= . 4579-U 
LET  N= i . 5433+ . 04*003  M6) 
LET  D5=50P  (D5*D5-D9*D9) 
IF  MU « =0  THEN  GOTO  340 
LET  D6=SQR  iDS*D5-D9*D9 ) 
IF  MU<=i  THEN  GOTO  340 
LET  D7=50R  (D7*D7-D9*D9> 
GOSUB  1030 
PRINT 

PRINT   "ECLIPSE  DATE:      " ; 
,  / ..  .  M  .  ..  , ..  .  y 

370    PRINT  "MAXIMUM 
'  H   " ; M9 ; "M  UT" 

330  LET  MP=INT    ( 1000*MP + . 5) 


-'6  0 
/  hi 

/N 


Di; 


PHASE:    "J  HI 


390   PRINT   "   PEMUMERAL  MAG 


100 

"  ;  M 


900 
910 


IF   MU  '■  =0  ThiEM   GOTO  930 

LET  MU  =  INT    (1000*MU+ . 5) /100 


U 


920  PRINT 


UMBRRL  MflG 


M 


PRINT  "  SEMI D U  R  AT 1 0  N 5  --" 
LET  D5  =  INT    CD5+ . 5) 


PRINT 


PENUMBRA 


930 
940 
950 
D5; "M" 
950    IF   MU<0  THEN  GOTO 
970   LET  D6=INT  I'DS+.S) 
930   LET  D7=INT  (D7+.5) 


1010 


1020 
1030 
1040 
1050 
1050 
1070 
1030 
1090 
1100 


TOTALITY 


Rfc-i*  /R 


990  PRINT 
D5; "M" 
1000  PRINT 
D7; "M" 
1010  RETURN 
REM  g 

LET  F=F+.S 
IF  F<1  THEN 
LET  F=F-1 
LET  J=J+1 
IF   G=l  THEN 
LET  fl=J 
GOTO  1120 


UMBRA 


GOTO  1070 


GOTO  1100 


LET  A 1 = INT 


. 12254) 
1110  LET 


36524.25)  -31 


( A  I  /  4 ) 


A=J+1+A1-INT 
B=A+1524 

0  = I NT    t  1 5 / 365.25)  - . 334 3 

DsINT  1.365.25*0) 
E  =  INT    (  (S-0)  -'30  .61) 
QsB-D-INT    K^.'ol^E)  +F 
M=E-1 
Y =0-4715 
E  > 13 . 5  THEN   LET  M =M - 12 


1120  LET 

1130  LET 

) 

1140  LET 

1150  LET 

1150  LET 

1170  LET 

1130  LET 

1190  IF 

1200  IF   M?2.5  THEN   LET  Y=Y  +  1 

1210  LET  DlsIMT  D 

1220  LET  H=24* (D-01) 

1230  LET  H1=INT  H 

1240  LET  hS-INT    (50-*  (H-Hl)  ) 

1250  RETURN 


ECLIPSE  DATE: 
MAXIMUM  PHASE: 
PENUMERflL  MflG 
UMEP.flL  MAG: 
S  E  M I D  U  R  AT  I QN  3 
PENUMBRA : 
UMBRA : 
TOTALITY  : 


20/2, 1239 
15H  37M  UT 
2.353 
1.271 

132M 
111M 
3  9  M 


SINC-UNK 


DIGITAL  ALARM  CLOCK  FOR 

QLERS 


The  following  is  a  program  from 
the  SIN  newsletter  to  provide  a 
gigantic  digital  alarm  clock. 
When  it  is  running  the  time  can 
be  set  by  pressing  and  holding 
the  Fl  function  key.  The  alarm 
time  can  be  set  using  the  F2 
function  key.   The  alarm  will 
buzz  as  long  as  the  time  is 
displayed,  or  it  can  be  shut  off 
by  CTRL  and  SPACE  BAR.   Then  you 
would  have  to  RUN  the  clock 
again.    If  you  have  a  real  time 
clock  with  your  QL  you  should 
edit  line  1210  which  sets  the 
time  and  date.  The  present  date 
is  the  12  March  1989.  The 
program  will  also  be  in  the  club 
library  very  shortly. 
See  H.  Howie. 

DIGITAL  CLOCK 

100  REMark  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<><<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 
110  REMark  >>>>  from  SIN     newsletter  <<<<< 

115  REMark  <>       Issue  #18  October  1987  <> 

116  REMark  <>     by  Yves  Gagnon  24/01/87  <> 

117  REMark  <>  translation  Louis  Laferriere  <> 

118  REMark  <>    time  and  alarm  can  be  set  <> 

119  REMark  <>       by  pressing  Fl  or  F2  <> 

120  REMark  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
130  : 

140  : 

150  DEFine  PROCedure  init 
160  MODE  4 

170  WINDOW  512,256,0,0 

180  PAPER  0 

190  CLS 

200  CSIZE  1,1 

210  PRINTV    DIGITAL  CLOCK' 

220  CSIZE  0,0 

230  END  DEFine  init 

240  : 

250  DEFine  PROCedure  EKx.y) 
260  BLOCK  100,100,x,y,0 
270  BLOCK  20,100,x+80,y,7 
280  END  DEFine  El 
290  : 

300  DEFine  PROCedure  E2(x,y) 
310  BLOCK  100, 100,x, y,0 
320  BLOCK  100,20,x,y,7 
330  BLOCK  20,20,x+80,y+20,7 
340  BLOCK  100,20,x,y+40,7 
350  BLOCK  20, 20, x, 7+60, 7 
360  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7+80,7 
370  END  DEFine  E2 


380  : 

390  DEFine  PROCedure  E3(x,y) 
400  BLOCK  100,100,x,y,0 
410  BLOCK  100,20,x,y,7 
420  BLOCK  20, 60, x+80, 7+20, 7 
430  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7+80, 7 
440  BLOCK  80, 20, x, 7+40, 7 
450  END  DEFine  E3 
460  : 

470  DEFine  PROCedure  E4(x,y) 
480  BLOCK  100, 100,x, y,0 
490  BLOCK  20, 60, x, 7, 7 
500  BLOCK  20, 100, x+80, y, 7 
510  BLOCK  60,20,x+20,y+40,7 
520  END  DEFine  E4 

530  : 

540  DEFine  PROCedure  E5(x,y) 

550  BLOCK  100, 100, x, 7,0 

560  BLOCK  100, 20, x, y, 7 

570  BLOCK  20, 20, x, 7+20, 7 
580  BLOCK  100,20,x,7+40,7 
590  BLOCK  20, 20, x+80, 7+60, 7 
600  BLOCK  100,20.x, 7+80 ,7 
610  END  DEFine  E5 
620  : 

630  DEFine  PROCedure  E6(x,7) 
640  BLOCK  100, 100,x, 7,0 
650  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7, 7 
660  BLOCK  20, 80, x, 7+20, 7 
670  BLOCK  80,20,x+20,7+80,7 
680  BLOCK  20, 40, x+80, 7+40, 7 
690  BLOCK  60,20,x+20,y+40,7 
700  END  DEFine  E6 
710  : 

720  DEFine  PROCedure  E7(x,y) 
730  BLOCK  100, 100, x, 7,0 

740  BLOCK  100)20,x,7I7 
750  BLOCK  20, 80, x+80, 7+20,7 
760  END  DEFine  E7 
770  : 

780  DEFine  PROCedure  E8(x,7) 
790  BLOCK  100, 100,x, 7,0 
800  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7, 7 
810  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7+40, 7 
820  BLOCK  100, 20,x, 7+80, 7 
830  BLOCK  20, 100,x, 7,7 
840  BLOCK  20, 100, x+80, 7. 7 
850  END  DEFine  E8 
860  : 

870  DEFine  PROCedure  E9(x  y) 
880  BLOCK  100, 100, x, 7  0 
890  BLOCK  100, 20,x, y, 7 
900  BLOCK  100, 20,x, 7+40  7 
910  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7+80 '7 
920  BLOCK  20, 100, x+80, y  7 
930  BLOCK  20, 60, x, 7,7 
940  END  DEFine  E9 
950  : 

960  DEFine  PROCedure  E0(x,7) 


SINC-LINK 


13 


970  BLOCK  100, 180, x, y,0 
980  BLOCK  100,20,x,y,7 
990  BLOCK  20, 100, x, 7, 7 
1000  BLOCK  20,100,x+80,y,7 
1010  BLOCK  100, 20, x, 7+80, 7 
1020  END  DEFine  E0 
1030  : 

1040  DEFine  PROCedure  EE(x,y) 

1050  BLOCK  20,20, x, 7+20, 7 

1060  BLOCK  20, 20, x, 7+60, 7 

1070  x=x-80 

1080  END  DEFine  EE 

1090  : 

1100  DEFine  PROCedure  SETJ&ARM 
1110  CLS:CSIZE  1,1 

1120  INPUTWV  ENTER  THE  TIME  FOR  THE  ALARM 
HH: MM  >";R$ 

1130  PRINTWV      ARE  YOO  SORE:  ";R$;\..  OK? 

Y/N" 

1140  IF  NOT  INKEY$(-1)INSTR  "Y":GO  TO  1110: 
END  IF 

1150  CSIZE  0,0 

1160  END  DEFine  SET.ALARM 

1170  : 

1180  DEFine  PROCedure  SETJiOOR 
1190  CLS: CSIZE  1,1 

1200  INPOTWV     ENTER  EXACT  TIME  HH: MM  >";W$ 

1210  ORE=W$(l  TO  2):MINOTI=W$(4  TO  5):SDATE 

1989,3, 12, ORE, MINUTI.0 

1220  CSIZE  0,0 

1230  END  DEFine  SETJIOOR 

1260  : 

1270  R$="" 

1280  init 

1290  F$=,,M 

1300  REPeat  LOOP 

1310  x=20:y=80 

1320  E$= DATES 

1330  E$=E$(13  TO  17) 

1340  IF  INKEY$=CHR$(236) 

1350  SEOLARM 

1360  GO  TO  1280 

1370  END  IF 

1380  IF  INKEY$=CHR$(232) 
1390  SET_HO0R 
1400  GO  TO  1280 
1410  END  IF 

1420  IF  E$=R$  AND  NOT  BEEPING 
1430  BEEP  32767,13,2,13,2 
1440  END  IF 
1450  IF  E$=F$ 
1460  NEXT  LOOP 
1470  END  IF 

1480  FOR  1=1  TO  LEN(E$) 
1490  P=CODE(E$(D) 
1500  SELect  ON  P 
1510  =CODE("0"):E0  x,7 
1520  =CODE("l"):El  x,7 
1530  :CODE("2"):E2  x,7 
1540  =CODE("3"):E3  x,7 
1550  =CODE("4"):E4  x,y 


1560  =CODE("5"):E5  x,7 
1570  =CODE("6"):E6  x,y 
1580  =C0DE("7"):E7  x,y 
1590  =C0DE("8"):E8  x,y 
1600  =CODE("9"):E9  x,y 
1610  =CODE (":"): EE  x,y 
1620  END  SELect 
1630  x=x+110 
1640  END  FOR  I 
1650  F$=E$ 

1660  END  REPeat  LOOP 
PRODUCT  INFORMATION 

-Surge  Protector  Strip  6  Outlet 

Part  No.   SP  -  300   $6.50  US 

Availible  at: 
National  Computer  Products 
1510  McCormack  Street 
Sacramento,  CA  95814 
Add  $2.50  for  S/H  costs 

-3   1/2"  Disk  Drive 
1/2  height  720K  DSQD 

NEC  MODEL  1035   $60.00  US 

Availible  at: 
Timeline 

1490  M  Artesia  Blvd 

Gardena,   CA  90247 

Add  $6.00  for  S/H  costs 

-5  1/4"  Disk  Drive 
Full  Height  720K  DSQD 
CDC  Part  #  77686002. .$50 .00  US 
Availible  at: 

Medelson  Electronic  Co.,  Inc. 

340   East   First  Street 

Dayton,   Ohio  45402 

Add  S6.00   for  S/H  costs 

From  April  89  Computer  Shopper 

Renato  Zannese 

FOR  SALE!    FOR  SALE!    FOR  SALE! 

2  -  TS2068  $30  EACH 

1  -  SPECTRUM  CARTRIDGE 

EMULATOR  $20 

1  -  SPECTRUM  EMULATOR. , $15 

1  -  2040   PRINTER  $20 

1   -  JOYSTICK  ADAPTER. . .$15 
1  -  PRINTER  INTERFACE 

(HACKEL?)  $30 

Many  books  and  games 

cassettes  $200 -for  the  lot 

-  Make  an  offer 

Orin  Zelenak 

R.R.il  West  Lome,  Ont. 

CANADA  NOL  2PO 

TEL.  .  .  (519)  768-1738 


STNC-LTNK 


MORE  RLE  GRAPHICS 


TEC-200  PRINTED  CIRCUIT  TRANFER  FILM 
Product  Review  R.  Bruneau 

TEC-200  Film  is  a  specialy  coated  plastic  film  that  can 
have  an  image  photocopied  on  to  it.  The  photocopied 
image  can  then  be  transfered  to  a  bare  printed  circuit 
board  using  a  common  household  iron.  The  plastic  is 
formulated  to  withstand  temperatures  up  to;320F  and 
therefore  poses  no  danger  of  melting  in  the  photocopier 
or  under  the  iron.  Instructions  on  using  the  film  are 
very  clear  and  cover  photocopying,  tranfering,  and 
etching. 

I  have  produced  several  p. c. boards  with  the  Tec-200  film 
from  magazine  articles  and  2:1  originals  and'M<hote  the 
following: 

1.  The  artwork  has  to  be  reversed  (mirror  image).  Host 
magazine  articles  give  you  a  'right-sided'  circuit 
pattern  so  it  is  necessary  to  make  an  intermediate 
transparency  with  the  TEC-200  film.  Flip  the 
intermediate  over  and  make  your  final  copy.  The 
temporary  copy  can  then  be  stripped  with  a  solvent  and 
reused. 

2.  The  iron  temperature  is  important.  Too  low  a  temp, 
and  the  image  will  not  transfer,  Too  high  a  temperature 
and  the  line  work  smears.  Too  much  pressure  on  the 
tranfer  will  have  the  same  effect. 

3.  If  the  transfer  is  not  complete  after  you  have 
removed  the  film,  use  a  fine  tipped  permanent  marker  to 
touch  up  the  prepared  board. 

4.  Etch  the  board  as  quickly  as  you  can.  For  small 
boards,  a  'Fridge-o-seal'  container  works  very  well. 
Place  the  prepared  board  in  the  container  copper  side 
up,  add  etchant  to  cover,  close  the  lid  and  agitate  the 
container  in  a  hot  water  bath.  With  this  method  the 
etching  time  can  be  reduced  by  almost  50%. 

With  a  program  like  P.C.  DRAW  for  the  2068  or  ZXPAINT 
for  the  TS1000,  TEC-200  gives  you  an  easy  way  to  make 
your  own  printed  circuit  boards. 

Available  from:     The  Headowlake  Corp. 

25  8lanchard  Drive 
Northport,  NY.  11768 

8.5"  x  11"  sheets  :  5  for  $3.95  plus  $1.00  postage 
10  for  $5.95  plus  $1.25  postage 
25  for  $14.50  plus  $2.50  postage 
Larger  quantities  available 


SINC-LINK 
WANTS 
YOUR 

GRAPHICS! 


STNr-l  TNK 


15 


2068 


STOP  THE  PRESS  SOFTWARE  REVIEW 

LARKEN  SEQUENTIAL/RANDOM  FILES  UTILITY 

Larry  Kenny  (Larken  Electronics  Navan  Ontario) 
has  recently  provided  a  new  software _ of fering 
based  on  the  concept  of  sequential  filing 
previously  included  in  the  version  3  LKDOS 
EPROM.    This  utility  is  available  on  disk  and 
provides  users  of  earlier  LKDOS  EPROMs  with 
the  opportunity  to  get  into  the  world  of 
random/sequential  filing;  even  for  version  3 
holders,  it  provides  added  capabilities  for 
using  this  ram^resident  extension  to  the  LKDOS 
system. 

The  utility  allows  the  LKDOSr.2068  to  handle 
large  data  base  files  and  exploits  features  of 
the  2068  hitherto  unused.  Up  to  four  files  may 
be  accessed  simultaneously  to  permit  data  to 
be  sorted,  merged,  etc. 

Included  with  the  disk  is  a  very  thorough 
seven-page  document  of  explanations  and 
instructions.  It  is  well  organized  and 
relatively  simple  to  follow;  but  it  took  me 
several  readings  along  with  trying  the  example 
file  to  begin  to  absorb  the  complexities  of 
the  system  and  there  are  still  parts  that  will 
require  much  more  study  and  application. 

The  disk  contains  the  main  BASIC  program 
<.SRcode.Bl>  which  will  in  turn  load  in  the 
operating  coae  vLBASE.BO  as  a  long  REM 
statement  (about  2500  bytes).  When  the  program 
is  RUN,  the  BASIC  memory  map  is  initialized 
and  the  BASIC  "start  of  program 
pointer" (system  variable  23635/6)  is  changed 
to  an  address  well  past  the  end  of  the  REM 
statement  to  make  it  invisible  in  the  listing 
and  safe  from  everything  except  the  NEW 
command* 

In  the  version  3  EPROM,  the  sequential  filing 
system  has  two  modes i  OUT  and  IN.  In  the  disk 
version  data  is  handled  in  two  modes:  Output 
(OUT)  and  Random  Access  (RND).  OUT  is  used  to 
create  a  file  or  to  add  more  data  to  an 
existing  file. 

RND  is  used  to  print  or  get  data  from  existing 
files ;  data  can  be  read  sequentially  from 
start  to  end  of  the  file  OR  can  be  randomly 
accessed  from  anywhere  in  the  file  and  then 
read  or  changed;  the  latter  is  accomplished 


l 
2 
3 
5 
10 
20 
30 
40 
$0 
80 
70 
80 
100 
110 
120 
130 
9981 
9982 
9983 
9984 
9985 
9988 
9987 
9988 
9989 


using  a  new  TAB  command  and  it  is  this  feature 
that  is  not  available  in  the  EPROM.  This  opens 
up  all  sorts  of  possibilities  for  handling 
large 'amounts  of  data  (up  to  800K  on  a  quad 
disk  drive ) . 

The  documentation  gives  examples  to  show  how 
all  this  done  and  this  exercises  the  grey 
matter  slightly  more  than  somewhat.     To  make 
it  a  bit  easier  to  follow,  a  sample  data  base 
is  included  on  the  disk*   <.TIMEDESGN>  which  is 
a  contents  list  of  Time  Designs  Magazine 
articles.  The  file  vLBASE.Bl>  should  be 
examined  carefully  to  determine  how  the  random 
filing  system  works  and  along  with  the 
documentation,  things  begin  the  get  clearer. 
It  is  best  to  make  a  copy  of  the  listing  for 
closer  study.  But  take  care»  If  after 
<.TIMEDESGN>  has  been  opened,  you  wish  to  study 
the  BASIC  or  to  make  some  changes,  you  must 
first  close  the  file.  If  you  forget  to  do  this 
and  BREAK  into  SASIC,  you  will  have  to  use 
<J*AND  USR  26800i  CL0SE#  7>  and  then  GO  TO  1  to 
set  things  right  again. 

Searching  for  any  given  string  is  a  feature  of 
the  disk  version  of  Sequential/Random  Filings 
it  is  very  versatile  and  recognizes  any  input 
in  either  upper  or  lower  case,  eg,  entering  a 
string  \LARKEN>  would  also  turn  up  records 
with  ^larken>  or  <vLarken>  or  even  vLaRkEn>. 

The  LBASE  sample  that  is  included  on  the  disk 
is  not  complete  as  a  text  editor;  neither  is 
it  a  word  processor;  rather  it  is  an  example 
of  what  can  be  done  with  the  Sequential/Random 
(S/R)  Filing  system.     The  instructions  make 
this  point  in  a  section  entitled  ^.Adding  new 
features  to  LBAS£>.  For  example,  a  sort 
routine  might  be  added  either  in  machine  code 
or  as  a  compiled  BASIC  add-on.  I  found  it  eas, 
to  add  a  routine  to  print  any  given  record  to 
either  the  2040  or  wide  printer.  Some  hints 
are  given  on  how  to  accomplish  this  but  this 
will  call  for  some  ingenuity  on  the  part  of 
Larken  users. 

This  review  has  touched  on  only  a  small  part 
of  the  detail  contained  in  the  Larken 
documentation.  It  is  a  utility  for  the  serious 
programmer  and  is  recommended  for  those  who 
want  to  extend  the  use  of  the  2068  to  very 
large  data  bases.  Much  work  would  have  to  be 
done  to  merge  the  S/R  filing  concept  with 
other  features  found  in  data  base  programs 
such  as  Profile. 

Bob  Mitchell  890509 


LET  f=15 


REX  Wordwrap  by  Steven  V.  Gunhouse 
LET  x=23408 
ON  ERR    GO  TO  70 

LET  a=10:  LET  b=ll:  LET  c=12:  LET  d=13:  LET  e=14 
READ  aS 

FOR  n=l  TO  15  STEP  2 

LET  w=18«VAL  a$(n)*VAL  a*<n*l) 

POKE  x,w:  LET  x=x+l 

NEXT  n 

GO  TO  10 

ON  ERR     RESET  :  POKE  26694,91:  POKE  26893,128 
LIST 

REX  A  routine  to  cause  screen  output  to  "wordwrap    like  a  word  processor 
REX  NOTE  a  CLS  will  require  POKEs  In  line  70  be  repeated  to  turn  back  on! 
REX  Resides  In  printer  buffer  -  DO  NOT  USE  WITH  2040  PRINTER 
REX  (Could  be  aodified  to  work  with  a  printer  instead  of  screen.) 


DATA  "0OOO0O00F59732O0" 
DATA  "5B11805BCD9705F1" 
DATA  "FE213838FE803034" 
DATA  "FE7B380ACB47282C" 
DATA  "FDCB016628262100" 
DATA  "5B6E23777D32005B" 
DATA  "FE21C021005B7EA7" 
DATA  "00C84F0600E5D123" 
DATA  "EDB02E001B7E7  3CD" 


000518E7FSCD1A06" 
3A005BB9D46805CD" 
A35BF100320E5CFE" 
10380BFE1830071E" 

9994  DATA  "EA165BC39705FE20" 

9995  DATA  "2005CD1A060DC8C3" 

9996  DATA  "0005320F5C3AOE5C" 

9997  DATA  "1EF9FE1630E33A0F" 

9998  DATA  "SCI 1805BC3A10500" 

9999  REM  End  of  data 


9990  DATA 

9991  DATA 

9992  DATA 

9993  DATA 


CTMP_f  TNV 


KDOS  SOFT-WARE 


^JilllllilllUHHfL, 
'«    ==  III 


CZ3 


LKDOS 


MAXCOM  300/1200  baud  Terminai/88S 

This  full  feature  modem  software  lets  you  ef  f  ectiviy  link  the  modem  to  tha  disk,  so  you  can  upload  or 
download  files  larger  than  lOOK.This  lets  you  send  NMI  saves  and  large  text  files  as  well  as  Basic  or  Code 
files,  which  other  modem  programs  couldn't  send  because  of  memory  limitations.  Also  files  can  be  sent  with 
or  without  a  information  header  (Spec-term  compatible)  . 

It  also  has  a  64  column  display  and  Is  the  only  2068  modem  program  that  will  run  at  full  1200  baud 
without  missing  characters.  Other  features  of  the  terminal  mode  are  IBM  graphic  characters,  auto-dialer, 
macro  keys.  110K  disk  buffer  for  captured  test,  auto  repeat  keys. 

The  BBS  Is  the  most  elaborate  available  for  the  2068  and  allows  the  remote  user  full  access  to  the  disk 
drives  similar  to  a  CPM  BBS.  Features  of  the  B8S  are  -  300/1200  baud,  operation  with  fast  rtponce  even  at 
1200  baud.    Passwords,  priority  levels.  Use  time  limits.    Multiple  Message  Bases.  Uploads  and  Downloads  arc 
not  limited  by  Memory,    Dual  Window  Monitor  screen.    Interupt  driven  time  out  and  Hangup  protection.  Also 
Keeps  a  User  log  of  cailers  Names  and  Activity  on  disk  so  a  printer  Isnt  needed  and  its  easily  customised  and 
expanded. 

MAXCOM  can  be  used  with  the  2050  modem  or  with  the  Z-SIO  RS232  interface  and  a  300/1200  baud 
modem,  (a  version  for  the  Aerco    RS232  Is  in  the  works). 
PRICE:  *24.9S 


LARKEN  OISK  EOITOR 

This  program  lets  you  examine  or  change  any  byte  on  a  LKdos  disk.  It  is  useful  In  repairing  damaged  or 
glltched  disks,  changing  the  disk  Name  or  head  speed  etc.  You  can  also  examine  the  track  map  and  disk  Info 
headers. 

The  documentation  for- the  disk  editor  also  includes  Information  on  how  to  access  LKdos  from  Maehine 
Code  and  information  on  the  structure  of  the  disk  catalog  and  data  blocks. 
PRICE:  $15.00 


SEQUENTIAL/RANDOM  Access  FILES 

This  utility  is  a  ram  resident  extension  to  the  LKdos  operating  system  and  lets  you  create,  read  from,  or 
write  to  very  large  data  flies  kept  on  disk.  It  uses  the  commands  OPEN*.  CLOSE*.  PRINT*.  INPUTf.  and 
INKEYStf  to  access  the  files  from  BASIC.  There  is  also  a  high  speed  search  command  for  finding  a  text  string 
within  the  data  file.  Using  the  TAB  command,  you  can  randomly  access  directly  any  record  in  a  file. 

The  utility  is  easily  used  within  your  basic  programs  and  has  a  lot  of  uses,  from  storing  large  data  files, 
creating  large  spell  checker  dictionarys  or  even  converting  you  basic  programs  to  an  ascii  text  file  . 

This  utility  lets  you  take  the  limits  off  of  the  data  capacity  of  the  2068  .Files  on  disk  can  be  huge  ! 

A  simple  data  base  program  is  included  on  the  disk  to  demonstrate  the  utility. 
PRICE:  $  15.00 


Coming  Soon  from  Larken  Electronics 

The  Larken  Oesk  Top  Publisher  •  •    Produce  high  quality  printing  (like  this  page  )  with  an  epson  compatible 
printer  and  LKdos.  The  entire  Hi-res  graphic  page  is  kept  on  the  disk  and  scrolling  though  the  page  is  as  easy 
as  clicking  the  joystick  or  mouse  on  the  Icon  type  menu.  Text  and  Graphic  editing  with  multiple  sized  fonts 
will  also  be  featured. 


♦  *  Spell  Checker  for  Tasword  and  M-Script  •* 
text  flies  be  checked  by  a  350K  dictionary. 


This  utility  program  will  let  you  have  your  wordprocessor 


All  Prices  $US    -  Specify  type  of  drive  when  ordering. 
LARKEN  ELECTRONICS    RR#2  NAVAN.  ONTARIO  CANADA.  K48-1H9 

(613)-835-2680 


SINC-LINK 


17 


C.A.T.S.  COMPUTER  FEST  1989 
Washington  D.C. 
by  G.  Chambers 

Well  the  great  day/weekend  has  come  and 
gone.  All  that  remains  is  memories.  And  what 
memories.  Was  the  show  a  success?  Well,  we 
don't  know  what  the  show  sponsors  and  dealers 
thought,  but  the  consensus  of  the  6  members 
from  our  club  who  attended  was  that  it  was  a 
trip  very  worthwhile. 

Rene  Bruneau,  Renato  Zannese,  Lou  Champagne, 
Hugh  Howie,  and  myself  went  down  to  Washington 
D.C.  in  a  rented  van.  Jeff  Taylor  also 
attended}  he  went  down  by  car  with  his  family. 

The  van  left  at  six  o'clock  on  Friday 
evening,  with  Rene  driving.  Picking  up  Renato 
and  myself  at  the  Toronto  Kipling^ subway 
station,  we  then  collected  Lou  Champagne  in 
Oakville,  and  Hugh  Howie  in  Burlington.  We 
travelled  via  Buffalo,  Erie,  and  Pittsburg,  to 
the  outskirts  of  Washington,  arriving  there  at 
about  6.30  am  on  Saturday  morning.  Driving  was 
not  good.  Rain,  fog,  and  road  repairs  were  the 
order  of  the  night. 

Had  breakfast  at  a  nearby  restaurant,  and 
then  waited  for  the  show  to  open  at  9  an. 

A  small  crowd  was  waiting  to  enter  the  hall 
where  the  computer  show  was  to  be  held.  When 
the  doors  opened  we  streamed  in.  Paid  our  $10 
2-?day  admission  fee  and  got  a  name  tag. 

The  hall  was  ringed  with  dealers  tables.  To 
the  right  as  we  entered  was  ZEBRA  SYSTEMS  with 
several  tables.  They  were  offering  a  multitude 
of  books  on  Timex  computers,  loads  and  loads 
of  software  for  the  TS1000}  also  I  saw  some 
Alphacom  32  printers,  some  defective  TS2068's 
(I  bought  2  at  $15  each!),  lots  of  bi-s  and 
pieces  relating  to  the  TS1000.  16K  RAMpacks  in 
abundance,  some  TS2050  modems.  I  saw  a  Timex 
Portugal  Disk  system  for  the  TS2068  being 
offered  for  $200. 

At  the  next  table  was  Time  Designs  magazine 
Company.  Tim  Woods  was  there  explaining  why  he 
was* late  with  the  Time  Designs  issues.  More 
about  that  in  a  separate  article  elsewhere  in 
this  issue. 

Tim  was  offering  a  number  of  Timex  books, 
compendiums  of  early  issues  of  the  Time 
Designs  magazines,  and  subscriptions  to  the 

Z88  magazine,  PIPELINE.  Also  he  was  offering 
the  Sinclair  Z88  computer  for  $400  (if  my 
memory  serves  me  correct). 

The  next  table  was  held  by  Jack  Dohany.  He 
had  a  Larken  system  running  and  was  demonstn 
rating  several  of  his  programs  1  also  he  was 
preparing  disks  to  order,  of  these  programs. 

Wood  and  Wind  computing    was  represented, 
offering  business  software  for  the  QL. 
They  had  a  system  up,     complete    with  monitor 
and  printer,  to  demonstrate  their  software. 

Then  there  was  Peter  Hale,  demonstrating 
an  administrative  program.  Am  I  correct  in 
thinking  it  was  SMARTEXT?  Anyway,  there  were_ 
about  eight  persons  paying  close  attention. 

John  Tasmino(?)  was  there  selling  a  mixture 
of  ZX81  RAMpacks,  and  some  QL  microdrives  and 
chips. 


Mike  Fink  was  ensconced  under  the  banner  of 
Domino  Cubes.  He  was  touting  the  merits  of  the 
Z88  computer,  and  the  advantages  of  purchasing 
one  from  him. 

The  CATS  club  had  a  booth  where  they  were 
selling  Fest  souvenirs,  such  as  hats, T-shirts, 
issues  of  their  newsletter,  etc. 

Johnson  Computers  was  offering  recondite 
ioned  TS2068*s  for  $62,  also  2068  SCLD  chips 
for  $25,  some  TS1500's,  and  several  disk 
drives.  They  were  using  a  Larken  combination 
to  demonstrate  their  software. 

Quantum  Levels  were  offering  subscriptions 
to  their  magazine  in  one  comer,  while  nearby 
Tom  Bent  had  a  number  of  items  on  his  table,  1 
mostly  relating  to  the  QL. 

One  of  the  most  popular  tables  seemed  to  be 
that  manned  by  Skip  Fisher.  Skip  was  selling 
reconditioned  RGB  monitors  for  $65  to  $100.  I 
think  he  was  sold  out  by  the  end  of  the  first 
day,  all  thirty  monitors! 

A+  Computer  Response  was  present.  They  were 
selling  QL  computers,  on  an  as  is  basis.  They 
also  seemed  to  have  some  ZX81  stuff  on  sale. 

In  the  centre  of  the  hall  was  a  set  of 

counters  manned  by  Sharp's.  They  had  lots  of 

new  QL's  for  sale  at  $90,  plus  a  lot  of 

software  and  peripherals  for  the  QL.  They  also 

had  a  C5  vehicle.  This  was  Clive  Sinclair's 
illnfated  venture  into  battery-powered 
personal  transportation. 

Aside  form  the  host  CATS  group,  several 
other  clubs  had  tables  at  the  fest.  There  was 
the  Sinclair  Milwaukee  Club  with  a  demo  of  the 
Digitizer  they  describe  in  their  newsletter, 
and  which  they  are  selling. 

The  Greater  Cleveland  T/S  Users  Group  were 
there  with  a  camera/TV  scanning  the  crowd. 

Also  the  Sine us  TS  group  had  a  couple  of 
monitors  on  their  table,  being  driven  by  a 
Larken/Oliger  system. They  were  offering  copies 
of  Sincus  News,  and  other  items. 

At  one  point  I  counted  the  number  of  persons 
on  the  floor.  It  seemed  to  me  that  there  were 
about  100  persons  attending  and  about  another 
20  persons  manning  the  counters.  In  addition 
there  were  an  onknown  number  attending  one  of 
the  seminars  in  progress  at  the  time. 

There  were  seminars  in  an  adjoining 
conference  room.  They  covered  topics  such  as 
"Office  use  of  the  ZX81",  "Making  the  most  of 
your  QL",  "Applying  the  Z88",  "The  TS2065  and 
More  BBS  about  Modems",  and  other  subjects. 

I  attended  one  seminar,  a  talk  by  Nigel 
Searle.  It  had  an  attendance  of  50  persons. 
There  were  empty  seats;  I  would  say  just  a  bit 
disappointing,  the  attendance,  that  is. 

Did  we  buy  anything.  Did  we!  Why,  we  now 
have  four  new  QL  users  in  the  group.  To  say 
nothing  of  several  TS2068*s,     an  RGB  monitor, 
some  QL  programs,  and  various  books,  and  bits 
and  pieces  of  hardware. 

All  in  all,  a  very  satisfying  experience. 
Our  hats  are  off  to  the  CATS  group  for  their 
handling  of  the  event,  and  for  making  it 
possible  for  so  many  Timex  members  to  meet 
each  other,  and  to  become  personally 
acquainted  with  the  various  Timex  dealers. 
Thanks  again  to  the  CATS  group. 


18 


SINC-LINK 


QL 


PLAYING  WITH  SOUND 


As  all  you  QLers  know,    the  sound  on  the  QL   is  kind  of   limited.     The  BEEP 
command  does  not  seem  to  have  any  set  order  to   it.     By  order,    I  mean  that  you 
cannot  get,   for  example,   a  C#  note  unless  you  tirelessly  experiment  with  a 
trial   and  error  method.     Unless  some  new  developments  come  up   in  the  sound 
department,    that's  what  we're  all  stuck  with. 

To  make  the  job  a  little  easier,    I  found  this  program  in  QL  SuperBASIC,  THE 
DEFINITIVE  HANDBOOK  by  Jan  Jones.     She  was  the  designer  and  writer  of  Sinclair 
QL  SuperBASIC  along  with  help  form  Tony  Tebby   (a  familiar  name  in  the  QL 
league).     It's  a  beep  excerciser.     Yup .     Just  type   it   in  and  call    it  by  typing 
'beep_menu',   you'll   see  what   I  mean. 


About  the  program:  It  is  generally  a 
interactively.  I  modified  it  so  that 
selection  process. 


menu  driven  way  to  experiment  with  sound 
a  joystick  may  be  used  to  control  the 


100  DEFine  PROCedure  beep_ienu 
105  HQDE  4 

110  REHark  BEEP  EXCERCISER 

115  FOR  i=0  TO  2:  CLS  *i 
120  PAPER  2:  INK  7:  WINDOW  448,200,32,16 
130  CLS 

140  PRINT  'Duration  (0-A) ' \ 'Pitch  (0-255) « \ 'Pitch  2  (0-255) 'VTiie  step  (0-235 

J'VPitch  step  (0-15)'\'Repeats  (0-15) ' \ 'Fuzz  (8-15) ' \ 'Random  (8-15)' 

150  AT  10,0:  PRINT  'Cursor  up,  cursor  down  to  change  ienu  itea  *\'Cursor  left  to  decrease  the  current  value'\'Cursor  right  to 
increase  the  value'VENTER  to  stop  the  noise'\'SPACE  to  stop  noise  and  exit  prograi* 

155  PRINT 

157  PRINT  'For  Joystick,  the  obvious  direction  control  &  fire  button*\'to  teninate.* 
160  DIM  par§(7) 

170  FOR  ipari=0  TO  7:  print _parai 
180  STRIP  0:  ipar»=0:  printjarai 
190  REPeat  in 

cOO     mc  =  C0DE(INKEY(-1S!:  REHark  read  keyboard 
210    SELect  QN  inc 

220       OK  inc=208:  IF  ipars>0:  change.pan  -i:  REHark  up 

230       ON  inc=cla:  IF  ipar«<7:  change.pan   I:  REHark  down 

240       ON  inc=l?2:  par#(ipari)=pan(ipari)-l:  rebeep:  REHark  left 

250       ON  inc=200:  pari(ipariispari(ipara)+l:  rsbeep:  REHark  right 

260       ON  inc=10:   BEEP:  REHark  enter 

270       ON  inc=32:   SEEP:  EXIT  in:  REHark  space 

280    END  SELect 

290  END  REPeat  in 

300  END  DEFine 

310  REHark   

320  DEFine  PROCedure  rebeep 
330  print_parat 

340    BEEP  par*(0)*500000/72,pari(  1  i  ,parst2i  ,pan(3)*l0000/72,pari(4i  ,pari(5)  ,pan(6)  ,pars(7) 
350  END  DEFine 

360  REHark   

370  DEFine  PROCedure  change_para§(change) 

380    STRIP  2:  print.parai:  REHark  print  old  selection  on  red 

390     ipan  =  ipari  *•  change 

400    STRIP  0:  printjarai:  REHark  print  new  selection  on  black 
410  END  DEFine 

420  REHark  —zz   

430  DEFine  PROCedure  pnnt_parai 

4<40     AT  i3ara,ll:  PRINT  partuparti  TO  14  SENEN  RACK  I 

450  END  DEFine  (416)  5496863 


SINC-LINK 


19 


Excerpted  from  members  letters i 

A  response  to  a  letter/article  that  was  in 
the  Mar/April  '89  newsletter. 


Dear  George  and  Company, 

Let  me  begin  with  a  response  to  the  letter 
by  John  Vander  Stel,  which  others  may  be 
interested  in. 

A  simple  way  to  get  a  non^f lashing  prompt 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  screen  is  to  use  a 
PRINT  #1.  After  a  response  is  found,  then  an 
INPUT       will  erase  the  prompt,  so  the  lower 
part  of  the  screen  can  be  used  again.  This  has 
the  same  problem  as  does  the  method  John  uses 
if  the  prompt  is  over  a  line  long,  that  it 
will  scroll  the  screen  if  it  was  full.  If  the 
prompt  is  only  2  lines  long,  this  could  be 
avoided  by  making  it  PRINT  #1  j  AT  0,0 j  which 
will  lose  the  line  separating  it  from  the  rest 
of  the  screen,  but  this  could  be  okay  if  the 
main  screen  and  border  are  not  the  same  colour 
(not  an  option  on  0Sr?64,  but  perhaps  INVERSE  1 
will  work  as  well  for  this).  Try  the  following 
lines i 

10  PRINT  #1 » "Edit      Next  page      Prior  page" 
20  PAUSE  Qi  LET  I$=INKEY$i  INPUT"" 

An  example  I  have  used  often  is  the 
following  as  a  subroutines 

1000  PRINT  #1>  "Press  any  key  to  continue.": 
PAUSE  Oi  INPUT  "":  RETURN 

Note  also,  if  you  are  using  INYERSE  1,  and 
want  to  fill  the  whole  line,  (or  if  you  are 
not  using  the  standard  BORDER  colour)  an  easy 
way  to  do  that  is  to  end  your  PRINT  with  a  TAB 
0;  or  an  appropriate  number  of  commas.  Since 
the  prompt  is  not  erased  until  after  a  key  is 
pressed,  we  can  even  use  the  PAUSE  0  method 
John  suggested,  as  was  demonstrated  in  the 
listings*  An  example  using  everything 
mentioned  ist 

1000  PRINT  #ljAT  0,0 j   INVERSE  1 ; "PRESS  Z  to 
COPY  to  printer, ", "any  other  key  to 
continue.",!  PAUSE  0:  LET  IS=INKEYS«   INPUT  "" 

1001  IF  I$-"Z"  OR  IS="z"  THEN  COPY 

1002  RETURN 

Steven  Gunhouse 
287^6  Five  Mile  Road 
Livonia,  MI  4815^3824 
Retyped  by  G.F.C.  March  16,  1989 


LARKEN  RAMDISK  (Bug  Alert) 

One  of  our  members,  Earl  Dunnington,  has 
provided  us  with  a  an  tip  with  regard  to  the 
Larken  RAMdisk.  He  writes i 

"Some  Larken  RAMDISK  memory  boards  may  have 
a  glass  diode  reversed.  The  symptoms  are  that 
the  batteries  may  wear  out  in  a  very  short 
time,  causing  CRC  errors  for  all  of  the  blocks 
when  using  RANDOMIZE  USR  100 «  VERIFY"".  The 
diode  upper  left  component  side  of  the  board 
when  attached  to  the* computer.  There  should  be 
no  voltage  on  the  left  side  of  the  diode  when 
the  computer  is  off  and  the  batteries  have 
been  installed. 

The  fix  is  to  snip  the  leads  about  half 
way,  turn  the  diode  around  and  solder  it  back 
to  the  stubs  of  the  leads.  Be  sure  the 
BATTERIES  ARE  REMOVED  AND  THE  COMPUTER  POWER 
IS  OFF  before  attempting  repairs." 

G.F.C. 


Larken  Tip 
by  G.  Chambers 

You  may  have  an  occasion  when  a  disk 
catalogue  call  ( CAT  "",)  comes  up  with  a  CRC 
error.  Nothing  special  about  that.  However, 
sometimes  you  may  be  puzzled  by  a  CAT  listing 
Which  sometimes  appears  along  with  the  CRC 
error. 

What  has  happened  is  thist 

The  printout  you  see  is  that  of  a  disk 
that  was  CATalogued  immediately  prior  to  thisc 
The  Larken  system  is  simply  printing  out  what 
is  being  held  in  the  DOS  RAM  from  an  earlier 
CAT  function,  and  which  has  not  yet  been 
erased. 

As  an  aside,  I  should  mention  that  if  you 
get  a  CRC  error  when  doing  a  CAT,  it  means 
that  your  directory  has  become  corrupted.  Not 
to  worry?  simply  use  the  Larken  utility 
"repair. Bl"  to  recover  it. 


MODEMS     MODEMS  MODEMS 
by  G.  Chambers 

In  the  Nov/Dec  '88  issue  of  the  newsletter  I 
mentioned  that  the  CNIB  (Canadian  Institute 
for  the  Blind)  were  offering  Rixon  212A  data  — 
sets  for  $42  each  (plus  shipping). 
Several  members  have  bought  them  and  are  using 
them.  I  understand  that  they  are  still 
available . 

I  have  since  had  a  letter  from  this  group 
which  could  be  of  interest  to  some  of  our 
members.  To  quote  t 

"Your  group  may  be  interested  in  the  fact 
that  within  the  past  week,  Bell  has  decided  to 
make  Smart  Modems  available  to  us.  These  har  , 
auto-rdial  and  another  bunch  of  good  feature 
and  are  fully  Hayes  compatible.  The  price  it. 
$67.50  plus  postage  and  they  can  be  ordered 
directly  from  me  at  this  address.  The  model 
number  is  212A/ED+,  made  by  GDC" 

(Croft  3.  Taylor) 
Telecom  Canada 
Room  570 

410  Laurier  Ave.  W. 
Ottawa,  Ont    KIP  6H5 


If you  are  interested,'  or  have  questions, 
why  not  drop  Mr  Taylor  a  line. 


20 


SINC-LINK 


2068 


=>B0B*S  NOTEBO0K<== 
JUMPING  BACKWARDS  RELATIVELY  SPEAKING 

The  280  nachine  language  instruction  JR  e  means  Jump 
Relative  by  e  addresses.  JR  cc,e  does  the  same  thing 
but  only  if  condition  cc  is  met?  cc  may  be  any  one  of: 
NZ,  NC,  Z  or  C. 

The  relative  jump  nay  be  forward  or  backward  and  in 
the  latter  case,  the  convention  used  is  that  any  value 
greater  than  7F  hex  (or  127  dec)  mill  be  taken  to  be  a 
negative  offset,  ie,  ths  normal  decimal  value  of  the 
hex  code  sinus  256. 

For  exa»ple,  the  offset  value  -10  is  F6  (246-256). 
An  instruction  JR  F6  mould  cause  the  routine  to  jump 
backwards  by  ten  addresses.  Counting  starts  with  the 
next  address  after  the  JR  F6  line,  deeoed  to  be  the 
zero  datua  point,  be  it  forward  or  backward. 

Normally  an  assembler  will  do  all  this  for  you 
automatically  as  you  put  in  your  mnemonics  and  labels 
but  later  you  ai^ht  want  to  study  the  disassembly  and 
folloiii  the  jumps  etc  in  any  debugging  process. 

Hare  is  a  short  program  to  generate  a  table  of 
backward  jumps  with  he-'  numbers  from  80  to  FF  (-123  to 
-1  dec).  Type  in  the  program  lines  carefully  watching 
the  spacing  in  line  140  and  the  length  of  L$  in 
particular. 

LISTING  1 

100  PRINT 

110  LET  L$='*=*=«=*====*=«=*^=  •== 

r=«s:-,  ■     -MREH  81  ='s 

120  PRINT  TAB  95'NESATIVE  SIGN  CONVENTION  FOR 
BACKWARD  JUMPS  (JR)" 

130  PRINT  L$ 

140  PRINT  '01234567 
S      9      A      E      C      D      E      F" :  REM  4  spaces 
between  characters 
150  PRINT  L$ 
160  LET  v$=i89AECDEF' 
170  LET  a=l 

ISO  FOR  i=128  TO  1  STEP  -16 

190  DIM  n$(3) 

200  PRINT  v$(a)5 

210  FOR  j=Q  TO  15 

220  LET  n$=STR$  (i-j) 

230  PRINT  '  -*;n$? 

240  NEXT  j 

250  LET  a=a+l 

260  PRINT 

270  NEXT  i 

280  PRINT  L$ 

290  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  CLOSE  #2 
300  STOP 

310  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  SAVE  'jmegCBl'  LINE  320: 
STOP 

320  RANDOMIZE  USR  100:  OPEN  *2,,lp":  RANDOMIZE 
USR  100:  POKE  16 

094,8:  RANDOMIZE  USR  100 :  POKE  16090,81 
330  OUT  127,15 
340  60  TO  100 


This  program  is  designed  to  run  with  a  dot-oatrix 
printer  in  the  condensed  mode.  It  will  also  run  in 
the  Elite  mode  if  you  make  the  following  changes: 

330  50  SUB  350:  OUT  127,27:  GO  SUB  350:  OUT  127,77 

340  GO  TO  100 

350  IF  IN  1270237  THEN  GO  TO  350 
360  RETURN 

Bob  Mitchell  890408 


TIME  DESIGNS  Magazine 
G.  Chambers 

For  some  time  the  burning  question  has 
been  'Where  is  if.  It  was  with  this  in  mind 
that  when  I  saw  the  TDM  booth  at  ComputerFest , 
I  proceeded  directly  there  to  question  Tim 
Woods  about  the  nonappearance  of  the  magazine 
since  the  July/Aug  '88  issue. 

To  my  surprise  I  saw  copies  of  the  two 
missing  issues  there.  In  fact.  I  was  able  to 
pick  up  not  only  the  two  issues  due  on  my 
subscription,  but  I  was  able  to  carry  off  the 
same  two  issues  for  three  other  Toronto 
members  who  have  not  seen  their  subscriptions 
either.  This,  of  course,  put  me  into  a  more 
receptive  mood  for  explanations. 

Tim  was  very  forthcoming  in  his  explana^ 
tions,  and  I  found  myself  with  some  sympathy 
for  his  predicament.  As  we  have  read,  he  has 
had  a  new  son,  and  also  had  to  cope  with  the 
death  of  his  father.  Seems  that  winding  up  his 
father's  business  took  an  inordinate  amount  of 
time,  and  the  TDM  affairs  simply  went  by  the 
boards.  Well,  I  gather  he  did  ask  his  wife  to 
get  out  the  mailing  but  she,  being  more  clever 
than  he  ever  imagined,  wriggled  off  the  hook 
by  messing  things  up  even  more ! ! 

Have  I  put  my  foot  in  it  for  you,  Tim?  With 
your  wife,  I  mean! 

Anyway,  all  you  long:, suffering  subscribers 
out  there,  the  -word  is  hang  in,  the  issues  are 
coming.  I  have  been  looking  at  my  copies  and 
they  are  pretty  good.  Tim  says  that  TDM  is 
still  strong,  healthy,  and  a  going  concern. 

To  any  TTSUC  members  I  suggest  that  if  you 
are  missing  issues,  drop  me  a  line,  and  I'll 
see  what  I  can  do.  If  you  write  to  Tim  Woods 
your  letter  will  probably  become  part  of  the 
enormous  pile  of  mail  that  has  accumulated  at 
the  Woods'  place  and  won't  be  answered  for  who 
knows  how  long! 


Sine-Link  wants  your  cowaents, 
letters,  hints,  questions,  ads 
and  articles.  Send  them  to  the 
address  shown  on  the  cover. 


SINC-LINK 


2068 


LARKEN  -  DISK  DRIVE 
INFORMATION 
BY  G.  CHAMBERS 


LARKEN-DISK  LIBRARY 
BY  G .  CHAMBERS 


One  of  our  club  members  has 
provided  us  with  an  excerpt  from 
a  service  manual  dealing  with 
disk  drives  used  on  the  IBM 
computer.   Many  Larken  owners 
have  drives  which  were 
originally  designed  to  work  with 
the  IBM  computer.  The 
information  would  be  of  interest 
to  these  owners. 

The  manual  states  that  "... 
There  are  two  basic  drives  types 
used  in  the  PC,   Many  of  the 
steps  for  diagnostics  and  repair 
are  the  same  it  is  called  Type 
1. 

"A  type  2  drive  is  made  by 
Control  Data  Corporation  (often 
called  a  CDC  drive) .    It's  serial 
number  begins  with  the  letter 
D. 

The  copy  I  have  comprises  18 
pages,    and  simple  test 
procedures,   using  a  meter,  to 
check  drive  operation.  There  are 
a  number  of  photographs,  but 
these  are   rather  unclear,   due  to 
the  photocopying  process.  The 
text  should  be  adequate, 
however . 

Interested  members  should  drop 
me  a  line.    I  can  send  you  a  copy 
for  the  cost  of  copying  and 
postage,  $2 


In  the  last  two  newsletters  I 
have  described  the  initial  two 
disks  on  the  club  library.  This 
time  I  shall  mention  what  has 
been  added  to  the  disk  library. 

Disk  #4. . ASTRONOMY 
For  this  disk  I  have  combed  our 
tape  library  and  assembled  a 
variety  of  programs  pertain- 
ing to  astronomy.   Some  are 
trivial,   others  are  pretty  good. 
This  disk  is  full,   so  that  if 
any  more  programs  come  to  light 
it  will  mean  doing  some  culling 
or  else  starting  a  new  disk. 
This  disk  is  a  DS  40  track 
size . 

Disk  #5.. MUSIC  and  SOUND 
Simular  to  disk  #4,    I  have 
assembled  all  the  programs  I 
could  find  in  our  tape  library 
pertaining  to  music.   Some  of  the 
files  give  musical  tunes,  others 
provide  the  tools  for  creating 
sound  on  the  TS2068,  This  disk 
is  a  DS  40  track  type.  There  is 
room  on  it  for  a  few  more 
programs . 

DISK  #6  ,  . ADVENTURE  PROGRAMS 
The  programs  on  this  disk  have 
been  assembled  by  one  of  our 
out-of-town  club  members,  Les 
Cottrell.  The  disk  contains 
quite  a  variety  of  text  and 
graphics  adventure  programs 
suitable  for  use  on  the  TS2063, 
i.e.   you  don't  need  a  Spectrum 
Rom.   Again,    this  disk   is  DS  40 
track . 


LOOKING  FOR  SOMETHING 
TO  BUY?  GOT  SOMETHING 
FOR  SALE? 
ADVERTISE  FREE  IN 
SINC-LINK! 


Others   in  the  works .. Financial 
Sounds,   Graphics,,  etc.  Any 
ideas,   anyone   interested  in 
creating  a  disk  for  our  disk 
library? 

******************************** 


SINC-LINK 


VAL.  for  th«  Ot. 


The  QL  has  great  string  laaipulatioR  functions  that  offer 
a  great  deal  of  flexibility. -  The  lethod  of  coercion  should 
eliiinate  the  need  for  the  VAL  function,  however,  there  are 
tiies  when  you  MUST  have  it. 

For  exaiple,  I  Mas  working  on  a  prograi  that  Mould  plot 
any  tatheiatical  function  on  the  screen.   The  function  had 
to  be  a  two  variable  function  lysSIN(x),  y=xA2,  etc.).  The 
plotting  part  of  the  prograi  Mas  easy  to  write,  but  the 
function  had  to  be  etbedded  in  the  Super  BASIC  lines  because 
it  could  not  be  put  in  a  string  and  then  evaluated.  A 
friend  of  line  had  the  sail  sort  of  problei,  so  Me  set  out 
trying  to  find  a  solution. 

On  the  2068,  the  following  Mould  be  solution: 


100  INPUT  *y  =  *;a$ 

110  INPUT  *x  goes  froi?  •}*! 

120  INPUT  'x  goes  to?  '}x2 

130  FOR  x*xl  TO  x2 

HO  LET  y=VAL  a* 

160  RErt  you  no«  have  x  and  y  co-ords 
170  REM  do  scaling  and  plotting 
180  NEXT  x 
190  STOP 

After  hours  of  thought,  Me  both  caie  to  the  saie  conclusion. 
He  have  to  lake  full  use  of  the  ability  to  work  with 
channels  on  the  81.  Since  Me  both  have  the  MIRACLE  SYSTEMS 
TRUMP  CARD,  references  to  'raitj  are  used,  but  these  can  be 
changed  to  any  device  naie.   The  following  prograi  skeleton 
can  achieve  the  saie  results  as  above  (in  a  round-about 
way) . 

100  DEFine  FuNction  y(x) 
110  :=C0S(x) 
120    RETurn  z 
130  END  DEFine 
HO  INPUT  'y  = 
"  150  INPUT  'x  goes  froi?  "!xl 
160  INPUT  "x  goes  to?  *!x2 
170  OPEN _ OVER  #3,  rail.teip 
180  PRINT  t3,  '110  z=';a$ 
190  CLOSE  43 
200  MER6E  rail_teip 
210  FOR  x=xi  TO  x2 
220  y=y(x) 

230       REMark  you  now  have  x  and  y  co-ords 
2W       REMark  do  scaling  i  plotting 
250  END  FOR  x 


Here  is  a  brief  explaination.     First  of  all,-TK2_EIT 
calls  up  the  Toolkit  II  extensions.   They  really  aren't 
necessary,  but  lake  things  fast  and  siipie.   If  you  don't 
have  the  toolkit  or  added  RAM,  then  change  0PEN.0VER  in  line 
130  to  QPENJO.   0PEN.0VER  just  QVERwrites  the  file  if  it 
already  exists.   Also,  change  rail_  to  any  valid  device 
which  you  happen  to  have. 

Line  110  just  sets  up  a  duny  equation  to  avoid  a  null 
assignment.   Since,  the  SL  does  not  have  the  vAL  function,  a 
problei  arises  when  you  say 

a$*  V2H*SIN(x)-LN(x)' 
x  =  2 
Y  -  T? 

Hom  are  you  going  to  evaluate  V  with  the  value  of  V? 
You  want  to  sub  the  value  of  x  into  the  equation,  then  assign 
that  result  to  y.  The  May  in  which  the  prograi  does  it  is 
siipie  when  you  look  closely.   It  just  changes  the  line  that 
has  the  equation  in  it  by  merging  a  one  line  prograi.  This 
one  line  prograi  contains  the  equation  that  was  input  by  the 
user.   With  RAH  disks  it  behaves  like  a  built  in  function,  but 
with  licrodrivw  it  is  sure  to  be  a  pain. 

If  you  are  going  to  use  this  routine,  be  sure  to  lake  the 
appropriate  changes  to  the  line  that  stores  the  equation  in  the 
new  prograi  (line  130  in  the  listing).  Also,  don't  be  confused 
with  the  DEF  FH.   It  uses  x  as  a  parameter,  but  it  is  not  the 
saie  as  the  x  later  on  in  the  prograi. 


Any  questions  or  suggestions?   Call  or  write  to  ie. 


SENEN  RACK I 

70  Sarside  Avenue  North 
Haiiiton,  Ontario 
LSH  M3 
(M&)  5*9  6863 


S INC- LINK  WANTS 
YOUR  ARTICLES, 
RIGHT?  WRITE! 


SINC-LINK 


L^FRKEZrNj      2G68/SPECTRUM  PRODUCTS 

LKDOS  -EXTENDED  BASIC     Cartridge  .      fully  Spectrum  com- 

Thxs  multi    function   soUware  cartridge ^for   2068  or  spectrum. 

T^carV^ae^^  is 
used  to  control    the  Larken   DSK-400  or  other   Di sk   Interf aces. 
The  LKdos  cartridge  uses  none  of   your  progr am  ram  as  it  has  its 
own  SK  ram  and'  8K  rom  on  the  cartridge.    It      is     also  comparioie 
with   OS-64  and   other   cartridge  based  Roms-  .   ,  .narH 

All    commands    ,LKD03  or  Extended  Basic  use  stand ard    'JY^oar d  com 
-mands  preceeded  by  PR I NT  *4:      eg;    PRINT  *4 : LOAD     f i 1 ename  CODE 

It  will   support    1   to  4  floppy  diskdrives     as     well      as  a 
Nonvolatile- '  RamDisk.    The  dos  Somatically  keeps     a  c^f^|ti°; 
All   files  on  disk  and  takes  care  of   all      f 1 1  e     JP*ce         * °c*£* ch 
etc.    (No  need  to  worry  about   lengthening  existing  programs  which 
van  cant  do  with   some  2068  Dos's)  r,cc-^p 
'Basic, Code  and  Array  files     are  saved  the  same  way  as  cassette. 

Sequential   Files  are  also  supported.   Now  you  can  OPEN  a  file 
and  PRINT  to   it   the  same  way  you  would  print  to     the     screen  or 
read  information  from  it  with   INPUT4  or   INKEYS*.     This     is  very 
use-ful    for  workinu  with   te>it   files.  Ann/vv  croccM-t  mcdrc 

Commands  -For   LKDCS  are     LOAD    ,  SAVE   ,  CODE    ,  ARRAY  ,SCREEN*,  MERGE, 
L I NE , CAT , FORMAT , ERASE , VER I FY , PR I NT , GOTO ,  OPEN , CLOSE , MOVE . . 
Also  anv  prooram  can  be  trans^ered  to  disk  with  the  push  of  a 

button    <Usinq"NMT   save  push  button  on  disk  interface   

As  well  as  "LKdos  commands,  the  cartridge  has  a  number  of 
Extended  Basic  commands.  Eq;  PRINT  :  CIRCLE  x ,y ,( pattern )  is 
now  a  graphic  Fill    command'with   10  different  patterns. 

Other  commands  include  ;  multiple  windows  ,  Box  clear  and  tin 
Channel  opening  for  Disk, Printer  and  screen,  variations  of  roKe, 
Paper,    ink     and  Clear.  ,  _+. 

-he  command  FRINT  #4: OPEN  #3,  "LP"   lets  you  use  f;^^%%nPr VSqman 
with  Lprint  or  Llist  commands.    It  can  be  used  with  £^c°'  I?;jMAN 
or  AW  printer  interfaces  and  it  supports  Line  length,  Margin, 
Tab,   Comma  and  other  parameters. 

-This  cartridge  is  also  available  for  the  AE*C°  5AMEX  »™J 
OLIGER  disk  systems  .  When  the  cartridge  is  installed  ,  rney 
will   emulate  a  Larken  Disk  system.   Demo  disK  supplied. 

400K  2068/Spectrum  Disk  Interface  (DSK-400) 

This  disk   interface  combined  with  the  LKdos  cartridge  will  give 
j  ,       you  a  2068/Spectrum  disk  system  second  to     none     .      Th is  a0""1.? 
1  f        density  disk    interface  will    put   AOOK  on  a  double  sided  40  track 
SL        drive.    It  can  control   up     to     4     -     3"      ,3.5"     or     5.25"  single 
"   iAT       sided, double  sided  or   quad  density  drives    (BOOK  on  a  Quad)  This 
\    V)  board   is  a  compact   low  profile  design   that   connects  to  the  rear 

VV  buss  on  the  2068  and   has  a  thru  connector.    It  can     load     o-uK.  in 

,kV    -  less  than  5  seconds.    The  NM T    (snap  shot)    pushbutton     is     on  tne 

'<  board  and  there  is  also     a     KEMPS  TON     compatible     joystick  port 

which   is  the  standard  for  all    spectrum  software. 


n 


nr&ecei  f'P^'     256K  Nonvolatile     Ramdisk  Kit  .  „a_H 

?j  \  V  The  ramdisk  now  supplied  as  a  kit  which  consists  of  a  PC  board, 
l^  sOeeim  main  connector  snd  Instructions  .  The  other  parts  are  easily 
JTm*  ^Pf)  obtainable  from  electronic  suppliers.  Th  i  s  ki  t  i  s  recomended  +or 
duw?,  O,         experta  only.    (The  ramdisk  cant   be  used  with   the  Aerco  FD-68) . 

-his  rear   mounted   memory  board   also  uses      the     Lkdos  cartridge 
*or   its  operatinq  system.    The  PRINT  ^4:  GOTO    (device)    c°mmanfVn  n? 
used  to  direct   the  Dos  to  Floppy  disk  or     Ram     disk      -All  LKDU* 
A{s        -floppy  disk   commands  arp  treated   the  same  for   ramdisk.    it  can  oe 
A  used  with   the  Floppy   disk    I-F  or   without.  M«^=  r-h<r»<= 

<&*  It    uses  the  no,  32K  bvte  static   ram  chips    ( 62256-1 p)    More  chips 

can  be  added  up   to'256K.    Two    'AAA'    batterys  provide  battery 

backun   for-   data  retention.  ' 

Fpecial    circuitry  protects  the  ramdisk  from  anv  data 
if    is  removed   from  the  2063    .      Very  Fast   and  Reliable. 

RRICES                   LKDOS  EXTENDED  BASIC  cartridge  *65.00 

(all   prices)      400K  Svstem    (Cartridge  +  4»j0K   Interface)  *U?.?j 

(are  SUS   )          Ramdisk   PCP  and   instructions  to  rir* 

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All    products  have  a  90  day  Guarantee 

24  SINC-LINK 


TORONTO  TIMEX-SINCLAIR  USERS  CL  UE 

April   3,  1989 

14   Richome  Court 
Scar  b  o  r o ugh?    0 n t » 

Les   Co 1 1 r e 1 1  Hi K  2 Y 1 

108  River  Heights  Drive 

Cocoa,    Ft...  32922 

Dear  Les, 

Sorry  I  have  not  got  back  to  you  before  now,  regarding  a 
couple  of  disks  that  you.  have  sent  me.  1  have  only  Just  now 
taken  a  close  look  at  them. 

What  I  see  is  that  the  first  one  that  you  sent  was  a  bit  of  a 
mixed  bag,  Then,  it  looks  as  though  you  took  heed  of  my  comments 
about  what  I  thought  a  club  La r ken  library  should  look  like?  And 
sent   me  a  second  disk   that    incorporated  many  of   those  ideas, 

I   worked  over   the  ADVENTURE;;  disk  a   bit,    adding  a  number  of 
similar   programs   that   I   had,    to  fill   up  the  disk,,    1  also 
mo  d i  f  i  e  d  t  h  e  d i s  k  h  eader   1 a  foe 1 ,   an  d  a  d  ded  t  o  t  h e  de  s  cr i  p t  i on 
file.      You  might    look  at   the  BppBOkr&nce  of   the  description 
file  on   the  screen.    1   used  a  different   font   in   it.    A  font   that  I 
think  makes  for  easier  reading.    The  font   is  built   in   to  the 
taswide  code.   This  modified  code  is  labelled  " tasui d. Cx" .    I  have 
also  used   Use  ON  ERROR  GOTO  routine  as  well.    You  might   take  a 
1 o o  k  a  t   h o w  i t  w o r k  s „    I f   y  o u  a  n s w e  r  the  s  c r  u 11?  message  w i t  h  a 
"n"    the  ON  ERR  routine  gets  you   back    to  the  menu  promptly. 

I   have  placed  this  modified  disk   into  the  library  as  Disk  #6. 
If  you  have  any   ideas  on  revising   it,    please     do     so.      I  would 
like   to  think  that     this     was     your     disk     contribution     to  the 
1  i  b r  a r  y ,    a n d  u n  d e r  y  o u r  c o n  t r  a  1  .     T he     mo d s     1     d  i  d     a r  e     t o  be 
co  n  s  i  d  e  r  e  d  s  u  g  g  e  s  t  i  o  n  s  o  n  1  y » 

I  see  where  the  other   " SHARE  DISK"   that  you  sent     me     has  many 
programs  on   it  which  are  also  on   the  other   disk,    so   I     am     in  a 
bit  of  a  quandary  as  to  what   to  do  with   it.    The  SPEC WORD  program 
is  very   interesting.    I'm  not   sure  that   I   prefer   it  over  Tasword, 
which    1   am  using,    but   it    is  an   interesting   program.    I   started  to 
modify  the  SPEC WORD  to  use  the  version  3  L ar ken  printer  driver 
routine.    But    I   now   think   that  was  a  wasted  exercise,  since 
probably   the  graphics  control   codes  will   work  only  with  the 
n  t  o  d  i  f  i  e  d  AE  R  C  0  s  o  f  t  w  a  r  e . 

I   tried  the  barker,  version  3  printer  routine  on   TASWORD  some 
time  ago,    but    found  that   the  graphics  printer   codes  needed  the 
Tasword  printer  software   in  order  to  be  effective.  * 

The   interesting   thing  about   the  instruction   files   "one. CC  " , 
" two. CC" ?   etc.,    is  that  they  are  in  32  column  format,   not,  say, 
64  or   SO  columns.    1   printed  and  pasted  them  up  as  such,    but  I 
would  have   liked  to  be  able  to  make  the  program  print   them  out 
in  64  column  mode.    1   was  unable  to  do  this. 

C;  •]  -n  r-cs^es.  lit 


George  Chambers 


March/April  19^9 

March  4,  1989 

Dear  OUt-Of-town  Members 

I  see  where  it's  that  time  again!.  We 
have  a  rather  large  newsletter  this  issue. 
Please  don't  come  to  expect  that  every  issue 
will  be  like  this.  Of  course  we  would  like  it 
to  be  so,  but  that  depends  on  the  material  that 
we  get  from  our  members.  While  a  lot  of  the 
material  comes  from  regular  contrioutors,  it 
has  been  observed  that  our  newsletter  gets 
contributions  from  more  members  than  many  other 
newsletters.  This  is  a  nice  thing.  We  would 
like  to  have  each  one  of  you  consider  a 
contribution.  Please!!  Would  "Pretty  Please"  do 
it!  ! 

Would  some  of  you  also  drop  a  line  to  the 
Editor  and  tell  him  what  you  think  of  his 
efforts  with  the  newsletter.  Personally,  I 
don't  think  I've  seen  greater  effort  put  into 
it  or  a  nicer  publication  since  it  was  first 
brought  out  in  1983. 

Before  I  forget  it,  a  query.  Am  I  up-to-?date 
in  my  answers  to  member  requests.  I  think  I  am, 
but  I  have  a  nagging  feeling  that  I  owe  a 
couple  of  disks  to  some  one.  I  have  a  few 
letters  to  answer,  which  I  will  do  up  with  the 
newsletter.  But  if  anyone  is  waiting  for 
something  from  me,  do  let  me  know.  (I  say  this 
in  every  newsletter! ) 

I  see  that  in  my  last  missive  I  mentioned 
that  I  had  received  some  32K  SRAM  chips  for  my 
RAMdisk,  and  that  they  were  not  functioning 
properly.  Well,  I  phoned  JDR  Microdevices,  in 
California.  They  do  not  have  a  toll-free  number 
i.e.  800,  from  CANADA,  as  they  advertise.  So,  I 
called  after  6pm,  which  made  it  about  3pm  in 
California.  A  woman  answered,  and  said  "please 
hold  on".  I  said, "Wait,  this  is  a  LD  call  from 
CANADA!  Don't  take  too  long".  Well,  to  make  a 
story  short,  she  did  come  back  promptly, 
listened  to  my  tale  of  woe,  gave  me  an  order 
number,  and  told  me  to  send  them  back,  they 
would  replace  them.  Sure  enough,  in  about  three 
weeks  a  new  set  came,  and  they  seem  to  be 
working  perfectly. 

The  defective  chips  had  a  CSI  logo?  the 
replacements  an  NEC  logo  (the  same  as  the 
original  2  chips  on  my  system).  So  I  have  my 
disk  menu  program  on  the  RAMdisk,  plus  three 
menu  SCREEN$,  TASWORD,  doctor. Bl,  and  a  couple 
of  Larken  utilities.  There  is  still  a  bit  of 
space  left,  that  I  am  reserving  for  the  next 
idea  I  may  have. 

Anyway,  I  have  to  say  that  I  was  happy  with 
the  way  JDR  Microdevices  handled  things,  and  I 
would  have  to  recommend  them  to  anyone  who 
wants  to  purchase  chips. 

My  remote  keyboard  project  has  been  placed 
on  the  back  burner  for  the  moment.  I  have  been 
doing  a  bit  of  work  with  a  modem.  A  local  group 
was  offering  300/1200  baud  modems  for  $42. 
Three  of  our  members  have  bought  them,  and  we 
have  been  busy  getting  them  up  and  going.  Well, 
it  meant  ordering  a  Z-SI/O  (serial  port)  board 
from  ED  Grey,  and  wiring  it  up.  This  is 
required  to  interface  the  modem  to  the  TS2068. 
I  have  my  modem  connecting  to  another  modem  OK, 
but  so  far  I  have  not  been  able  to  communicate. 
Another  member,  Renato  Zannese,  is  trouble-r 
shooting  it  for  me  at  the  moment.  Whether  there 
is  a  real  problem  with  the  I/O  board  or  whether 
it  is  my  own  incompetence,  I'm  not  sure!!  I'll 
keep  you  posted. 


The  modems  are  a  good  value.  They  are  a 
surplus  item  from  the  local  telephone  company, 
donated  to  the  CNIB  Amateur  Radio  Group  as  a 
goodwill  exercise,  for  them  to  raise  money. 
They  come  with  a  5  year  guarantee.  It  seenu  to 
me  that  the  telco  is  retiring  them  from 
service,  and  doing  a  good  turn  at  the  same 
time.  I  am  told  that  they  are  working  with  IBM 
clones,  and  with  Commodore  computers.  I  expect 
them  to  work  with  ours,  also.  They  are  built 
like  a  tank  (and  weigh  almost  as  much).  Anyone 
interested?  I  think  they  are  still  available. 

I'll  tell  you  a  little  story.  I  was  in  the 
local  electonic  surplus .store ,  and  there,  on 
the  floor,  was  a  whole  heap  of  them  for  $10 
each! !  Well,  I  explained  this  to  the  other  two 
who  had  bought  the  $42  variety,  however  there 
was  a  feeling  that  they  were  still  a  good  buy. 
Whew!  I'm  relieved! 

The  $145  RGB  monitore  have  been  a  success. 
I  saw  one  of  them  in  action,  and  I  hate  to 
admit  it  but  it  seems  to  be  a  better  image  than 
the  one  on  my  Sears  RGB!!  It  was  hooked  to  a 
QL,  and  it  gave  a  dazzling  performance  of 
coloured  graphics.  I  guess  the  QL  is  faster 
than  the  TS2068  in  getting  things  on  screen. 
Fortunately  for  me,  they  had  sold  out  when  I 
went  next  time,  so  I  did  not  have  to  decide  not 
to  buy  one,  the  decision  was  made  for  me! 

We  had  a  bit  of  trouble  getting  the  inter- 
facing cable  right.  A  visit  to  Schennelly 
Stoughton  got  us  on  the  right  track.  Well,  what 
I  really  mean  to  say  is  that  Schennelly  got 
them  working  pronto!!  If  you  remember,  I 
mentioned  Schennelly  and  computer  repairs,  in 
my  last  missive. 

As  you  will  read  in  the  newsletter,  Hugh 
Howie  is  now  looking  after  the  QL  section  of 
the  club.  So  I  rather  expect  that  there  will  be 
some  great  activity  in  that  department.  Maybe 
it's  not  moribund;  maybe  dormant  would  have 
been  a  better  term!!  OK,  OK  Hugh,  I  won't  say 
any  more,  except  "great  stuff". 

The  TS  UPDATE  magazine  made  mention  of  our 
newsletter  being  strong  on  Larken,  as  a  conse- 
quence we  have  had  quite  a  number  of  requests 
for  a  copy  of  the  club  newsletter.  Also  a 
number  of  new  members  with  the  Larken  system 
have  joined.  There  has  also  been  quite  a 
response  to  the  Larken  library.  Have  I  ever 
been  busy,  recently.  Tell  me  about  it. 

We  do  welcome  the  new  members,  and  hope  that 
you  take  advantage  of  all  that  our  club  offers. 

One  of  our  new  members,  along  with  his  member- 
ship money  ,sent  us  a  copy  of  a  QL  service 
manual,  and  a  QL  technical  manual.  Another 
member  sent  an  article  for  the  newsletter  (on  a 
QL  topic)  along  with  his  application  form • 
That ' s  the  kind  of  new  members  to  recruit ! 
Thanks,  Senen  Racki  and  Mike  Ferris. 

Yes,  and  Senen  has  also  sent  me  a  xerox  copy 
of  the  QL  schematic.  It'll  need  a  bit  of  work 
to  make  it  useful  (legible)  but  will  be  a 
useful  addition  to  our  club  resources. 

There  have  been  quite  a  few  new  members  join 
since  I  last  gave  a  thumbnail  sketch  about 
myself,  maybe  it's  about  time  to  do  it  again. 
This  way,  you  out-of-town  members  will  have  an 
idea  who  you  are  corresponding  with.  I  like  to 
know  who  I'm  writing  to,  but  I  can't  put  this 
sort  of  info  into  every  letter  I  write. 

I  have  been  retired  since  1981  from  the  Bell 
Telco.  I  worked  there  as  an  engineering 


assistant.  Married,  with  3  adult  children,  none 
of  whom  are  interested  in  computers!  Have 
dabbled  over  the  years  with  housebuilding, 
photography,  Pottery  (throwing  and  firing), 
gardening,  and  lastly  T/S  computers  and 
computer  clubs.  Been  a  Scout  Cubmaster  for  some 
18  years. 

I  mentioned  Bill  Banner  as  having  a  document 
on  Larken  and  the  ZX81.  He  has  sent  me  another 
draft  of  the  document;  this  time  a  greatly 
expanded  version.  If  any  one  would  care  to 
critique  it  for  Bill,  I  would  be  happy  to  send 
you  a  copy. 

We  have  an  index  of  exchange  club  news- 
letters in  our  club  library.  I  can  send  you  a 
coll  of  it  if  you  wish.  We  are  assembling  the 
newsletters  by  club.  We  therefore  have  files 
^r^rVXlubs.  If  vou  are  interested  we 
woul^ce'delighted  to  send  a  fU.«jtto  you 

s  r^t^o^ou  »  swrcs? 

SS^SE;  SS^'thS.iS  XuK  betters 
are  better  than  others,  of  course. 

Recently  we  have  started  exchanging  with 
four  new  Timex  Sinclair  groups. 

?hey  are.  The  Cedar  Rapids  and  Greater  Iowa 
Sinclair  Timex  people,  the  Seattle  Area 
?WsInclair  Use?  Group,  the  Vashon  Island 
Timex/Sinclair  Association  and  the  Boston 
Computer  Society  ( Sinclair/Timex  Section). 

I'm  not  sure  whether  I  mentioned  it  before, 
but  I  have  been  assembling  various  musical/ 
souno-  program  onto  a  Larken  disk  ft  include  in 
the  club  Larken  library .  I  would  like  to  fill 
up  a  Double  sided  disk.  I  have  about  20 
programs  so  far.  Maybe  some  of  you  have  a 
contribution  I  can  put  in  it.  I  have  two  of 
5oanrKealy's  programs.  Perfidia  and  fergreen. 
Joan  has  written  several  others  and  I  would 
like  to  include  them  on  the  disk.  Any  help. 

Any  other  ideas  for  topic  disks  in  our  Larken 
library?  A  graphics  disk?  One  on  Astronomy? 
Printers? 

Now  maybe  we  can  see  what  our  exchange 
newsletter  have  to  offer  usi 

The  Vancouver  T/S  club  newsletter,  Z™^AL, 
reports  that  they  have  received  the  ^y00} 
Issue  of  TIME  DESIGNS.  Has  anyone  else  received 
it    I  hear  TIME  DESIGNS  have  a  recorded  announ^ 
cement  on  their  telephone  line  that J^ys 
evervthing  is  up  to  date;  that  the  newsletter 
Is  on ii'l  way.  (Not  clear  which  issue  they  are 
talking  about)  I  sure  wish  there  was  a  little 
bit  more  integrity  about  some  of  the »se 
publishers.  I'm  really  getting  fed  up  to  the 
teeth  with  all  this  shillyshallying!!  I  have 
received  nary  a  word  since  I  sent  in  my  renewal 
back  in  July  '88.  I  know  Bill  Jones  says,  "have 
solo  sympathy  for  newsletter  publishers",  but 
enough  is  enough,  surely. 

The  Feb  (89  issue  of  ZXAPPEAL  has  an  article 
entitled  "The  ZX/TS  True  6kK  Internal  NVM 
Upgrade".  The  copy  is  from  a  ZX  Printer,  but  if 
yoS  would  like  a  copy,  ask  me.  This  issue  also 
has  an  article  on  QL  overheating,  and  how  to 
solve  it  once  and  for  all.  I  see  where  it  is  a 
reprint  from  the  QL  newsletter,  QUANTA. 

The  Jan  '89  ZXAPPEAL  has  a  good  article  on 
how  tc  protect  your  computer  from  transient 
power  line  voltages. 


THe  Harrisburg  T/S  newsletter  (Jan  '89)  has 
an  arS  on  miking  up  a  Z88  to  IBM. or  TS2068 
interface  cable,  showing  pin  connections.  The 
Feb  '89  issue  has  a  full-page  advert  (sort  of;, 
for  a  software  package  which  is  purported  to 
make  your  QL  think  it  is  an  IBM  PC.  There  are 
two  versions  of  it,  one  called  the  Vanilla 
Solution,  the  other  more  elaborate  version  the 
Chocolate  Solution.  RMG  Enterprises  appear  to 
be  promoting  it.  Some  cost  figures  are  given, 
(80  Pounds/Vanilla  and  130  Pounds/Chocolate), 
but  just  what  that  translates  into  RMG  figures 
is  not  clear.  I  can  supply  a  copy  of  this 
information,  if  you  are  interested.  Or  you 
could  drop  a  line  to  RMG  Enterprises. I  suggest 
sending  a  US  dollar  bill  to  them,  for  stamps, 
etc. 

The  newsletter  TIMELINEZ  (Dec  '88  issue)  has 
a  lengthy  article  on  the  John  McMichael 
interface  board.  This  allows  hooking  a 
Commodore  1520  four-colour  printer-plotter  to 
the  TS2068.  The  newsletter  has  an  original 
example  of  the  plotter  output  pasted  up  on  the 
front  page.  Very  novel. 

We  have  started  a  newsletter  exchange  with  a 
T/S  group  in  Cedar  Rapids  Iowa.  The  first  issue 
we  received  has  a  lengthy  article  on  a  battery 
backup  for  the  TS1000,  using  a  12V,  2.5  AH  gel 
cell. 

SINCUS  NEWS  (Jan/Feb  '89)  has  a  three-part 
series  called  "Exploring _ the  TIMEX/SINCLAIR 
1000' s  Sinclair  Logic  Chip" 

The  CATS  n/l  (Jan  '89)  has  a  couple  of  QL 
articles.  One  is  a  lengthy  article  (which  looks 
impressive)  called  "LET'S  IMPORT" .  This 
newsletter  also  has  an  article  on  how  to 
eliminate  retrace  lines  from  and  RGB  monitor 
when  used  with  a  2068  or  QL. 

The  SMUG  newsletter  (Jan  '89)  has  an  article 
of  interest  to  Aerco  Disk  Drive  owners.  It  is  a 
tutorial  on  a  disk  utility  called  SEKTOR.  The 
same  issue  of  SMUG  Bytes  has  an  article  on  a 
Digitizer  for  the  TS2068.  It  says  their  club 
will  sell  assembled,  tested  digitizer  boards 
for  $50  US,  plus  $3  shipping  and  handling.  A 
feed  through  connector  will  cost  another  <iO« 
There  are  a  couple  of  cautions.  It  won't  work 
(yet)  with  the  Aerco  Disk  interface,  and  you 
can't  have  anything  in  the  dock  port.  Which 
eliminates  the  Larken,  also!! 

The  PLOTTER  (Feb  '89)  has  a  QL  cartridge  Back 
up  program  listing.  Also  it  has  a  n  article 
called  "2068  Large  Printer  Screen  Dump".  It  is 
a  m/c  program  listing. 

That  seems  to  just  about^ind^things  up^for 

newsletter!!  Leaving  you  with  that  thougnr, 
remain,  Yours  Sincerely, 

George  Chambers 
d^kvtiXtj  CXj*Am*»>  $S-J2oJL. 


3  /Z 


TORONTO  TIMEX-SINCLAIR  USERS  CLUB 
February  28,  1989 

14  Richome  Court 
Scarborough,  Ont. 

Les  Cottrell  M1K  2Y1 

108  River  Heights  Drive 

Cocoa,  FL  32922 

Dear  Les, 

Received  you  package  about  a  week  ago.  Thank  you  for  the 
return  of  the  tapes. 

I  tried  the  program  "survivor"  and  I  was  able  to  load  it  OK. 
It  may  have  something  to  do  with  tape  recorders.  I'll  have  to 
check  out  Mario  Bros  as  well.  If  I  recollect  it,  I  had  some 
difficulty  with  it  as  well.  That  is  to  say,  it  would  lock  up. 

Sorry  that  I  did  not  include  the  games  tape  listing  the  last 
time.  I  shall  try  and  remember  it  this  time. 

Funny,  I  hardly  ever  use  the  " erase. Bl"  utiltiy.  The  ones 
that  I  use  most  are  "doctor. Bl,  "copyl2.Bl" ,  and  "repair. Bl". 
Well,  come  to  think  about  i,  I  use  them  all.  I  think  some  of 
them  are  pretty  clever,  even  if  I  do  say  so  myself!! 

Re  your  query  on  a  disk    of    adventure    games    for    the  club 

ii5rFy-4.J.ilkSuth?.idea  a  lot'  thouSh  I  aS  a  little  fearful 
about  letting  the  library  get  too  big.  The  three  disks  that  are 
m  it  already,  are  proving  to  keep  me  busy.  Maybe  it's  the 
novelty  of  it, %  and  so  many  Larken  owners  are  interested  in  the 
Larken  utilities.  Maybe  what  I  want  to  do  is  go  at  it 
caimotUsufficeOV:Lde  *  d±Sk  where  U  serves  a  purpose    that  tape 

n-Q^2og^Te+y0^an  idea  ?f  ^here  At  can  l9ad  t0  I  include  another 
games  list,  this  one  showing  programs  which  are  on  disk,  and/or 
on  tape.  Pretty  staggering,  isn't  it!  ' 

You  ask  for  some  ground  rules  for  club  disks.  Well,  I  know 
Larry  Kermy  says  I  should  use  Single  sided  disks,  because  some 
members  have  that  type  of  drive.  But  I  find  that  a  bit 
restrictive.  It  may  be  OK  for  the  Larken  utilities  disk  that  I 
have  put  in  the  library.  But  for  others,  I  think  that  DS  40 
tracks  per  side  is  most  appropriate.  Maybe  I  feel  most  strongly 
is  this.  That  there  is  no  point  to  simply  duplicating  the  tape 
library.  If  a  disk  is  to  be  put  into  the  library,  then  there 
should  be  some  valid  reason.  I  have  mentioned  this  before  but 
maybe  it  bears  repeating.  That  is,  on  tape,  the  programs"  have 
some  natural  order  in  terms  of  loading.  That  is  to  say,  the  code 
files  are  usually  loaded  by  the  immediately  earlier  Basic 
loader.  On  disk  however,  there  is  no  such  natural  order.  For  all 
intents  and  purposes  they  are  on  the  disk  in  random  order,  with 
no  indication  as  to  their  grouping. 

I  feel  that  a  disk  of  programs  should  have  a  front    end  menu, 

§8i!*rMis«hSecoftteMPof f ini ' dil8?eSnaS  tSg°^roi&imsmI?g J  wnM 
files  go  to  make  up  each  program;  and  how  to  use  the  programs 
once  loaded.  All  very  time  consuming  to  prepare  such  a  disk. 
But,  given  the  higgledy-piggledy  nature  of  our  club  tape 
library,  I  am  not  anxious  to  perpetuate  it  in  the  club  disk 
library!  Do  these  thoughts  make  sense? 


Does  that  mean  that  I  am  interested  in  your  "adventure"  tape. 
Probably  I  am  interested.  Maybe  you  could  send  it  to  me,  and  I 
could  take  a  look  at  it.  I  have  an  adventure  game  taken  out  of 
ZX  COMPUTING,  called  Jack  and  the  beanstalk.  Based  on  the  fairy 
tale.  Do  you  have  it? 

Six  milliseconds  seems  to  be  the  standard  as  far  as  club 
members  are  concerned.  I  have  not  come  across  any  other  speed.  I 
think  Larry  built  the  speeds  in  his  DOS  so  that  his  system  would 
be  flexible.  I've  never  run  across  a  member  who  could  not  use 
that  speed. 

I  think  that  either  10  or  9  tracks  per  NMI-save  are  both 
acceptable.  If  users  want  to  make  a  9  track  save  out  of  a  10 
track,  then  they  can.  In  my  program  "crackr.Bl"  I  use  the  9 
track  SAVE,  I  did  that  partly  because  I  was  initially  working 
with  9-^track  saves.  Then  I  decided  to  keep  it  that  way; 
reasoning  that  users  could  make  a  9-?track  save  from  their 
10-;track  programs,  and  use  that  with  the  "crackr.Bl"  program. 

Well,  I  shall  close  now  and  enclose  this  letter  with  our 
newsletter.  We  have  a  rather  large  newsletter  this  time.  Seems 
that  our  members  are  being  more  helpful  in  contributing  material 
for  it.  Our  Editor  does  not  like  copying  material  from  other 
newsletters,  so  he  is  lucky  to  have  such  cooperative  members  to 
send  original  stuff. 

Sincerely, 


George  Chambers